


Scent Like Home

by Destielshipper4Cas



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alpha Dean, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Blow Jobs, Bottom Castiel, Come Marking, Cuddling & Snuggling, Explicit Sexual Content, Falling In Love, First Time, Fluff and Smut, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Miscommunication, Omega Castiel, Omega Verse, Past Abuse, Past Rape/Non-con, Pining, Scent Marking, Scenting, Sharing a Bed, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Strangers to Lovers, Top Dean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2020-07-03
Packaged: 2020-09-07 17:42:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 28,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20313472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Destielshipper4Cas/pseuds/Destielshipper4Cas
Summary: ‘Alpha Needed: Looking for an alpha with a calming scent, preferably mated, for scenting purposes. Twice a week, one hour. Pay: $20 per hour plus expenses.’In order to get his anxiety attacks under control, Cas is supposed to regularly scent an alpha whose scent makes him feel safe.Dean could really use the extra cash and the ad sounds like the easiest 20 bucks an hour Dean has ever made.But then things get complicated…





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't use the rape/non-con warning for this story because it doesn't happen in the fic and is just mentioned as something that happened in Cas' past. But please heed the past rape/non-con tag.

“So, what’d the therapist say? He fix you yet?”

Cas rolled his eyes, even though Gabriel couldn’t see him over the phone.

“You’re hilarious as always,” he deadpanned as he continued pacing back and forth in his bedroom.

He had only had his first appointment today and even though he hadn’t wanted to go in the first place, it hadn’t been as bad as he had imagined.

“I try,” Gabe said, and Cas could practically hear his smirk.

He sighed and sat down on his bed. Time to talk to his brother about why he had called.

“Doctor Fuller thinks I could get the panic attacks under control…”

“That’s great, Cassie!” Gabe interrupted, sounding genuinely excited for him.

“…if I regularly scent an alpha relative,” Cas finished.

There was pause on the other end of the line.

“We don’t have an alpha in our family anymore,” Gabe finally said as if Cas didn’t know that.

“He said a friend would work as well,” Cas continued and was interrupted by his brother once more.

“You don’t have any alpha friends, either.”

“I am aware of that, thanks,” Cas replied. He looked down at the piece of paper he held clenched in his hands. “I just… I want to get better. If I have another attack in front of customers, I’m going to get fired,” he explained.

Gabe immediately went into protective brother mode.

“Hannah can’t do that. She said you could keep working there if you got help. You’re getting help. Plus, it’s been months since you had an attack that severe. It was just bad luck.”

It hadn’t just been ‘bad luck,’ but Cas decided not to get into that again. Instead, he took a deep breath and said, talking quickly to get it all out, “Anyway, Doctor Fuller said that as long as the scent is comforting to me and makes me feel safe, the chances are good that regular scentings will help prevent further incidents, so I’m thinking of finding an alpha to scent. And I need you to tell me that that’s a good idea.”

“Cassie, that’s a _great_ idea! I’ve been telling you to get out there and cruise for some alpha knot for _ages_. Do you need me to set you up? I think I still know some alphas down there—I’ll just give them a call. Maybe I should come visit you and introduce you personally…”

“What are you talking about? I’m not looking for a fling,” Cas had to cut his brother off. “I was talking about putting an ad in the paper—or maybe on the noticeboard of the bookshop.”

Silence.

Then, “An ad?”

“Yes.” Cas looked down at the piece of paper again and read out what he had come up with so far, “‘Alpha Needed: Looking for an alpha with a calming scent, preferably mated, for scenting purposes. Twice a week, one hour. Pay: $20 per hour plus expenses.’ Does that sound okay? I’m not sure if I should clarify that it is just me scenting him and not the other way around.”

“It sounds like you’re _insane_,” Gabe said. “What’s with the ‘mated alphas preferred’? As if any omega would just allow their alpha to go off and let some other omega scent him.”

Cas shrugged. “I don’t want it to be weird.”

“This is _very_ weird. _You’re_ weird.”

Cas rolled his eyes again—he did that a lot when talking with Gabe. “Thanks.”

Gabriel just ignored him. “In that case, I rescind what I said earlier. This is a _crazy_ idea. You will need to scent someone with a ‘calming scent’ so that you can calm down enough to meet up with a strange alpha in the first place. Hey, you could put up an ad for _that_.”

Gabriel was laughing at his own joke and Cas waited for him to fall silent again before he said, a bit petulantly, “I’m fine with alphas as long as they’re not in a pack. I can deal with them one by one in a professional manner.”

“You mean as long as it’s not two or more?—Hate to break it to you, lil’ bro, but two is hardly considered a ‘pack.’”

“That was _one_ time. Usually I can handle two without a problem. It’s three where I start to get uncomfortable.”

Of course, Gabe knew that, but he liked ribbing Cas about things like that. Cas would never admit to it out loud, but he liked the fact that Gabe was so direct about it, not mincing words. It was a hell of a lot better than being treated with kid gloves when the topic came up. Somehow, Cas suspected Gabe knew that…

“I doubt anyone will be dumb enough to answer the ad anyway. But keep me posted so that I can tell you ‘I told you so,’ ’kay?”

Cas shook his head, unable to suppress a smile. He could read between the lines. That was clearly Gabe’s way of telling him to go for it. “You’re ridiculous,” he stated nevertheless.

“Love you too, lil’ bro.”

* * *

The ad had to be one of the strangest Dean had ever read—and he had seen ads for knot enlargements and beta cockblockers. But he could really use the extra money. Sam’s student loans didn’t pay for themselves. Plus, sitting around and letting someone scent him? Easiest twenty bucks an hour ever.

The ‘preferably mated’ part had thrown him off for a second, but he doubted mated alphas were going to respond, so here he was. About to enter the coffee shop his potential new omega ‘employer’ had suggested as a place for the job interview.

Taking a deep breath, Dean pushed open the door and looked around for someone who was wearing a trench coat. His eyes finally found the omega in the far corner—he was actually wearing the trench coat, even though he was inside. He had a few sheets of paper in front of him and was doodling around on them.

Suddenly, the omega looked up and his eyes instinctively landed on Dean, who gave him a casual wave and wandered over.

When he had reached the omega’s table, he had to keep himself from staring because—whoa! That was one sexy omega. If he had met him in a bar, he’d have let him scent him for free. Seriously—easiest twenty bucks an hour, _ever_!

“Uhm… Dean. Winchester,” Dean remembered to introduce himself as he held out his hand.

The omega squinted at the hand and for a moment, it seemed like he wouldn’t take it. But then he did as he said, “I know. I have the interview schedule right here.”

Dean glanced at the paper with the doodles in the margins. Wow—that was a long list of names. Seemed like other alphas had had the same thought about easy money. A few of the names were already crossed out.

“Castiel—you can call me Cas.”

Dean nodded, finally let go of Cas’ hand, and sat down.

“So… If you’ve already had some interviews, I guess this isn’t a first come first serve kind of deal?” he asked.

“I specifically asked for a ‘calming scent,’” Cas said, wrinkling his nose, which looked kind of cute. “Up till now, I’ve had one who smelled like dead fish, one who smelled like rotten fungi, and one who actually smelled like anger issues.”

He was squinting at Dean again, tilting his head as if he expected Dean to admit to smelling like rotten something. They stared into each other’s eyes for a few seconds. Cas had really beautiful eyes…

“May I?” Cas asked abruptly, reaching for Dean’s hand.

Dean could do nothing but nod as Cas brought Dean’s wrist to his nose and inhaled deeply, closing his eyes.

A few seconds ticked by in silence and then Cas let go of Dean’s hand, which promptly fell down onto the table between them.

He opened his eyes and said, “You’re hired.”

“What, seriously?” Dean asked. “Just like that? You don’t want to ask me anything?”

“You smell like home, that’s just the kind of calming scent I need. I noticed you don’t have a mating mark, but none of the applicants are mated, and my brother made me aware that mated alphas probably aren’t interested in letting omegas who aren’t their mate scent them. As long as we are clear on the fact that this is just a transaction, nothing more than a scenting, it’s okay with me that you are not mated. Plus, I’ve been at it for over an hour and am tired of having to interview alphas. So, if you don’t have any questions…”

Dean was left reeling a bit from this long speech that was delivered in such a deadpan way but, even though he was very happy that his scent was appealing to Cas, he said, “I do have a question, actually. Why are you looking for someone to scent? I mean, twice a week for one hour—that’s oddly specific.”

“That should be none of your concern,” Cas answered.

Wow. Total roadblock there.

“Okay, what about me? Don’t I get to scent test you?” Dean raised his eyebrows as he tried to reach for Cas’ hand as Cas had done with his before.

But Cas took his hand off the table.

“You don’t have to like my scent since I will be the one doing the scenting. I can use scent blockers for our appointments if you prefer?”

Dean had already gotten a whiff of Cas’ sweet omega scent as soon as he had shaken his hand, and knew that he definitely would not prefer that, so he shook his head. “Nah, we’re good.”

As they started talking weekdays and times that would work for both of them, Dean couldn’t help but feel a pang of regret that he wouldn’t get to scent Cas in return.


	2. Chapter 2

Their first ‘scenting appointment’ took place on a Friday night, which gave Dean the perfect excuse as to why he couldn’t hit the bars with his alpha friends. Not that there was anything wrong with hanging out with them—sometimes he just preferred a quiet night in.

Of course his “Sorry, got to let an omega scent me” had made him the perfect target for teasing, but so what? He’d be home early enough for _Dr. Sexy_, which wouldn’t have been the case had he gone out and gotten drunk in some bar or other.

When Cas opened the door, he was talking on his cell phone.

“Yes, I will. Talk to you later,” Cas said to whomever was on the other side of the line, and then he hung up and motioned Dean inside, explaining, “My brother. Just in case you’re thinking about robbing me or killing me—he has contacts in the police department and he’ll call the cops if I don’t call him back in an hour.”

“Uhm… okay?”

Wow. Trust issues much? Well, he had known Cas was a strange little omega when he had signed up for this. No backing out now, he assumed, when he watched Cas start the timer on his cell phone and put it into his pocket.

Dean took off his jacket and looked around for somewhere to put it. Cas’ apartment was very homey. Although, that might be because the whole place smelled like him. Dean couldn’t believe he was getting paid to hang out in the best-smelling place on Earth.

“So…” Cas said while Dean was hanging his jacket on a coat hook next to Cas’ trench coat.

When Dean turned around, ready to break the ice with a joke, Cas took a step forward and the next second, the omega was nosing along Dean’s neck, just behind his ear, and then he found the scent gland and just _latched on_, taking deep breaths.

His hair tickled Dean’s chin and Dean had no idea where to put his hands. Around Cas’ shoulders or onto his hips would be the obvious solution, but both seemed way too intimate.

Of course that was a ridiculous thought, considering that he was standing here, being scented by an omega within an inch of his life. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been scented in such a blatant way.

_Couples_ scented each other. _Family_ scented each other. _Mates _scented each other. Dean didn’t even feel comfortable letting omegas scent him during _sex_. It just didn’t seem to be appropriate for one-night stands. Maybe he should have thought of that when he had answered the ad…

“So… How was your day, honey?” Dean asked, trying to make light of the situation.

“Stressful,” Cas replied on a sigh. He obviously hadn’t picked up on the fact that it had been a joke.

They lapsed into silence once more.

“So, we just keep standing here for a whole hour?” Dean asked after a couple of minutes when his legs began to ache after a day on his feet.

That got Cas to stop scenting for a second and take a step back. Dean had already started to think he was a vampire or something, not moving away an inch from Dean’s neck for a second.

“Uhm… Of course. We can sit down on the couch if you’re uncomfortable.”

Cas led them into the living room and as soon as Dean’s ass hit the couch, Cas was pressed against his side to get better access to his neck.

This time, Dean ended up putting his arm on the couch behind Cas, which was way more comfortable than standing in the hall.

After another few minutes had ticked by, Dean had to admit to himself that he had not thought this all the way through when he had agreed to this.

Cas’ little sniffs along his scent gland were like foreplay. Correction—like the _weirdest_ foreplay session without hands-on action _ever_.

Since Cas’ head was _right there_, even though Dean wasn’t scenting him, Cas’ alluring scent was all around him. On top of that, Cas kept bumping his scent gland with his nose, nuzzling into him as if he wanted to climb inside of him.

Great. Now he was starting to get aroused. Talk about inopportune moments. Of course, since Cas had his nose pressed against Dean’s scent gland, the omega immediately picked up on the change in his scent. He inhaled deeply and—sighed contently. Huh. Maybe Cas hadn’t realized that the change in scent had come from the fact that Dean was starting to get horny.

Still, if this continued, things could get awkward, so Dean quickly thought of the most unsexy thoughts he could think of. Luckily, _Sammy in tights_ did the trick as per usual.

But there was simply no way he could sit here for a whole hour without going insane.

“I’m getting bored,” he said because he couldn’t very well say, ‘I’m getting aroused.’

“I told you to bring a book,” Cas’ voice rumbled against his neck.

Great—when Cas talked, his lips were almost brushing against Dean’s skin. ’Cause that was gonna help matters…

“I thought you were joking.”

“Why would I be joking about bringing a book?”

Cas sat back to look at him with furrowed brows, and Dean almost let out a sigh of relief. His scent gland was quickly becoming the most sensitive spot of his body, and a reprieve from having Cas tease it mercilessly was just what he needed.

“You can borrow one of my books if you want,” Cas offered, motioning to the wall that was lined with bookshelves full of what seemed like hundreds of books.

“Great!” Dean quickly got up and ambled over to see if Cas had any Vonneguts.

“So, you really like books, huh?” He called over his shoulder as he browsed through the bookshelves.

“Yes,” came the prompt answer.

Not the most chatty omega he had ever met, apparently.

Dean was just about to pick any book at random when his eyes landed on one half-hidden behind a huge volume of some encyclopedia.

It was old and worn—it had obviously been read a lot, and when Dean looked at the title (‘Knot Your Typical Alpha’), he realized that it was some sort of romance novel. The cover suggested it might even be an erotic novel. Perfect!

If Cas’ scenting should make his dick misbehave, and Cas picked up on the scent of alpha arousal, Dean could simply blame the book.

Satisfied with his choice, Dean walked back over to the couch.

When Cas saw the book he had chosen, his cheeks turned an adorable shade of pink, and he snatched the book out of Dean’s hands with a scowl on his face.

“Not that!” he said, putting it between the couch cushions out of sight. “That isn’t even a book for alphas! It was just a prank gift from my brother.”

“Ah.” Dean smirked. “That why it looks like it’s been used so much?”

Cas’ blush expanded down to his neck and he shot Dean a dark look, but didn’t comment one way or another.

Dean decided to stop teasing him for now, even if making the omega blush was kind of fun. Instead, he said, “Okay, if you don’t approve of my choice of books, let’s get back to the scenting—but let’s at least not sit here in silence.”

Cas squinted at him. “Should I put on music?” he asked.

Yes, because that would make this scenting ‘date’ a whole lot less romantic…

“I meant talking,” Dean clarified.

Cas narrowed his eyes. “I’m not good at talking to strangers.”

Dean grinned, sure he would win this argument. “Well, if we tell each other a bit about ourselves, we won’t be strangers anymore. Here, I’ll start.” He motioned for Cas to continue scenting, and once the omega’s nose was pressed to his scent gland once more, he began, “I’m an Aquarius. I’ve got a little brother Sammy, who goes to law school, and when I’m not making money letting omegas scent me, I’m a handyman and do all kinds of contract work.”

Dean smiled, pleased with his initial description of himself.

He had not expected Cas’ unimpressed, deadpan answer, though. “I know.”

His scent must have turned surprised because Cas elaborated, “What, you thought I would let an alpha into my home without doing research first? I googled you.” After a beat of silence, he added, “And let my brother run a background check on you.”

“Wow.” Someone sure had done a number on that omega, to make him that cynical. “First the threat to call the cops, now the background check… You really went all out to make sure I don’t murder you, huh?”

“Better safe than sorry,” Cas mumbled into his neck.

Another minute ticked by in silence before Dean gave it another try. “So… You seem to have me at a disadvantage here. I didn’t run a background check to make sure you didn’t plan to lure me here in order to eat me or whatever.”

“Well, you’re an alpha. You could have easily overpowered me anyway.”

The rest of the hour, Dean managed to get Cas out of his shell a bit. He learned that Cas was working at a local book shop, that the brother with the contacts in the police department was called ‘Gabriel’ and was older than Cas, and that this strange scenting arrangement had apparently been suggested by Cas’ therapist—even though he still wouldn’t explain why.

There were also quite a few things Dean could tell Cas that a background check hadn’t been able to reveal. They talked about favorite books and TV shows and before long, the hour was almost up.

Dean had also managed not to get a boner, even though at the end of the hour, he was pretty sure his scent gland had turned into a huge erogenous zone.

When Cas’ timer went off, Dean almost couldn’t believe that it had already been an hour.

They both looked at each other, surprised, which Dean supposed meant that Cas hadn’t realized the time was already up, either.

While Cas was turning the timer off, Dean joked, “Better go before the cops show up.”

Cas nodded and got up to walk him to the door, where he held out a couple of bills that Dean quickly put away. Dean put on his jacket and when he turned back around to Cas, he wanted to say “This was fun” because it really had been—but getting paid reminded him that this hadn’t been about fun.

So instead, he said, “Thanks. Scent you later.”

Cas tilted his head and squinted at him. “No, you won’t.—If anything, I’m the one who should be saying that.”

“Cas—it was a joke. Just fake-laugh at it and say goodbye.”

That made Cas tilt his head even further. “Fake-laugh?”

“I didn’t say it was a _good_ joke.”

“Ha ha?” Cas said and Dean couldn’t help but roll his eyes affectionately.

Unsure of how to say goodbye to someone who had intimately scented him for an hour, Dean said, “See ya,” and gave him an awkward little wave before he walked out the door.

Once outside, he took a deep breath. He couldn’t wait to get home. Not necessarily to watch _Dr. Sexy_, but definitely to get rid of his sexual frustration. A jerk off session in the shower sounded like just what he needed.


	3. Chapter 3

Over the next few weeks, Dean got into the habit of jerking off before he went to Cas for their scenting dates so that he could avoid any embarrassing reactions to Cas’ assault on his scent gland. More often than not, he was so worked up after they were done with the scenting, that he had to take care of his poor, confused cock _again_ when he came home.

Seriously—he hadn’t jerked off that much since he had first gone into rut. It was becoming ridiculous.

When he wasn’t frustrated about being inadvertently teased by Cas, he really enjoyed their evenings together.

The second time, he had brought his copy of Slaughterhouse-Five and when their conversation had slipped into a relaxed silence, he had begun reading it to Cas.

That first time, Cas had been a bit stiff, but after a few scenting sessions, he was getting more and more comfortable with Dean.

The sweet scent of relaxed, content omega had a very relaxing effect on Dean in return. If this was supposed to be some sort of technique to de-stress, then Cas’ therapist was definitely on to something. Dean was beginning to feel like a fraud, taking money from Cas for something he felt _he_ should pay for.

At least, once they had finished Slaughterhouse-Five, Dean realized that he could repay Cas by teaching him about pop culture. Next step: Pretty much every important movie ever made, since Cas didn’t seem to know any classics.

As it turned out, he didn’t own a laptop, either, which Dean thought was a joke, but apparently, that had been Cas’ serious face. At least, Cas had a TV (at that point, Dean didn’t take anything for granted), and that’s how Dean found himself in Cas’ bedroom for the first time.

“Uhm… we could—” Dean began, trying to come up with a way to not make this weird, but Cas just grasped the front of his shirt and pulled him down onto the bed next to him.

For some reason Dean couldn’t coax out of Cas, the omega was completely drained that night. He barely listened to Dean explain what was so awesome about the movie and instead drank in Dean’s scent as if he was scent-starved.

Once or twice, Dean tried to get him to pay more attention to the movie, but Cas would just look towards the screen for a few seconds and then bury his head in Dean’s neck again.

Clearly, something had happened that had left Cas rattled, so Dean just hoped that his scent was reassuring and comforting enough for the omega.

Dean’s instincts told him to settle his omega, to take care of him and reassure him. Deciding to indulge his alpha just this once, Dean put a protective arm around Cas and continued explaining what was happening on screen. Even if Cas didn’t pay attention to the words, Dean’s calm, confident voice seemed to do the trick and settle Cas’ nerves.

* * *

Cas burrowed deeper into Dean, letting his scent soothe him. He was glad he hadn’t cancelled their appointment, even though he had thought about it after what had happened at work.

It had been towards the end of the day when his scent blockers were beginning to wear off. Some alpha had sniffed around him, complimented his scent and had continued to make Cas feel uncomfortable, all the while making it impossible for Cas to ignore him because he kept asking for his help, looking for specific books.

The fact that Cas had been alone in the bookstore with him at that time as well as his revolting, macho scent had not helped. Even though it had just been _one_ alpha, Cas knew that normally, he would have been very close to a panic attack.

When the alpha had paid for the books, asking if a pretty omega like him had plans for the night, Cas had quickly told him that he was about to close up and luckily, the alpha had finally gotten the message and left him alone.

The fact that Cas had gotten through the encounter without a meltdown was testament to the fact that the scent therapy was working.

Still, the whole ordeal had left him pretty frazzled.

On the one hand, meeting an alpha didn’t seem like such a good idea after that incident. But on the other hand, Dean wasn’t just any alpha. Cas really liked listening to his soothing voice. Plus, he hadn’t seen Dean in a few days and missed his scent.

Dean’s scent always managed to calm him down and Cas always slept like a pup after a scenting session.

This time was no different. Within minutes of taking in Dean’s scent, the tension of the day began to leave his body and the memory of the tenacious alpha from the bookstore didn’t seem so scary anymore with a big, protective alpha right next to him.

Dean’s scent really did smell kind of protective. But Cas was too exhausted to try and figure out why that was.

He didn’t care much about what movie Dean had decided to watch to keep himself entertained for the hour, but at least the alpha kept commenting on things. His deep, familiar voice made Cas feel safe. Safe enough to close his eyes as he kept taking in the scent of comfort, and security, and home…

* * *

Cas had never felt so good and cared for in his entire life. Still half asleep, eyes closed, he instinctively searched for his mate’s scent gland and took in a deep breath of the addictive scent.

There was a protective arm around him, which was pulling him closer, and his mate let out a content sigh before nuzzling into his neck and scenting him in return.

His mate’s thumb was lazily rubbing small circles on the bare skin of his stomach where Cas’ shirt had been lifted up to expose his tummy.

Cas let his tongue dart out to wet his lips and let it flick over his mate’s neck in the process. That got him a rumbling moan in response, and his mate pulled him a bit closer still, letting his hand roam over Cas’ tummy to his waist and leaving it there.

The scenting and teasing and fondling felt so intimate that Cas’ omega desperately wanted to submit to his mate.

Wait—something didn’t quite add up. How could he submit to his mate if he didn’t even _have_ a mate?

Before he could follow up on that thought, a loud banging startled him fully awake and his not-mate was falling out of bed.

“Dean?” Cas asked as he peered down at him with confused concern. What was the alpha doing here?

“Mister Novak?” someone yelled, still banging on the door.

“Do you always get rude visitors so early in the morning?” Dean grumbled, following him out of the bedroom.

Cas ignored him for the moment and, glancing down at his own rumpled clothes, decided that he wasn’t really presentable, but if his neighbors were inconsiderate enough to be banging on his door at the crack of dawn, they would have to accept some sloppiness.

Only, when he opened the door, there was no neighbor in front of it, but a policeman in uniform who was holding a cell phone to his ear.

“I forgot to call Gabe!” Cas realized, slapping his forehead with his hand. In all the excitement the day before, he had completely forgotten to set the alarm. _And_ to unmute his phone.

“Seriously?!” Dean asked, not amused. He was clearly an angry sleeper who did not appreciate being startled into falling out of bed first thing in the morning. “I thought you were _joking_ about that!”

Cas turned around to frown at Dean. “Why do you always assume I’m joking? I’m not that funny.”

“This some kind of joke?” The police officer interrupted them. When Cas turned back around to him, he realized that he was talking to the person on the phone—probably Gabe.

Dean mumbled, “Apparently not,” but the officer already continued, “You send me in here to wake up a mated couple…”

Cas could feel blood rush to his face at the insinuation.

“No, we aren’t…” he started at the same time that Dean said, “We didn’t…”

“I’m paying him,” Cas quickly set things straight.

Dean glared at him and mumbled through his teeth, “Would you not try to get us arrested for solicitation?”

“What?!” Cas asked and it took him a moment to get why what he had said might be interpreted in that way. Then he quickly clarified for the police officer, “We didn’t sleep together! I mean… we _slept_ together, but not in a soliciting kind of way…”

Laughter could be heard over the officer’s cell phone. Cas would have to get his brother back for this later. Gabe had known that Dean was harmless. It had been _weeks_ now after all, and Cas had told him how sweet and understanding Dean was.

“Well, it seems like my job here is done,” the officer said, ending the call. “Mister Novak—call back your brother. He was very worried.”

Somehow, Cas doubted that.

With those words and a last stern look at both Dean and Cas, the police officer walked away, leaving Cas alone with Dean for the first time since they had woken up scenting each other.

Cas closed the door, but he didn’t feel up to looking Dean in the eyes, so he stared at his own feet instead, trying to think of something to say. _Sorry for licking your neck_ didn’t seem to begin to cover it. _Sorry for my assbutt brother_?

“Uhm… I should…” Dean finally began.

“Yes!” Cas quickly agreed.

Something weird was going on with him and Dean, and since Cas couldn’t think straight when the alpha was around, he would have to figure this out away from Dean’s intoxicating scent.

Only when Dean was gone did Cas realize that in all the hassle, he had forgotten to pay him, and Dean hadn’t mentioned the money, either. Cas wouldn’t even know how much he owed him anyway. It wasn’t like he had asked him to stay the night…


	4. Chapter 4

Dean couldn’t believe that he had let himself fall asleep and then sleep through the whole night in Cas’ bed.

The omega had scented himself to sleep like a pup, and the movie hadn’t been over anyway—that was the only reason why Dean had stayed when the hour was up. He had just wanted to see the end of the movie, that was all. (He blissfully ignored the part of his brain that pointed out that he knew the movie by heart.)

Well, and he hadn’t really known how to get out from underneath Cas—and the rest was history.

When Cas had licked his neck, his mating instincts had been triggered like crazy. All in all, he was not surprised that the cop Cas’ dipshit of a brother had called on them had thought they were mated. He had probably produced mating hormones all over the place.

Still, the fact that he had woken up fondling Cas in his sleep had been kind of awkward, so Dean had made for a quick exit, without even asking for the money. Taking money from Cas for getting the best night’s sleep of his _life_ just hadn’t seemed right.

Just thinking back to the comfortable moment before he had realized that Cas wasn’t actually his mate made him get through the day with a smile on his face. That was, until he got a text message from an unknown number.

_Unknown: u think u can just m8 my bro?!_

Just to be a dick, Dean sent back, ‘who is this?’

Ten seconds later, he had an incoming call. He was thinking about letting it go to voicemail, but he didn’t want to alienate Cas’ brother too much.

“It’s Gabe, jackass. How many omegas are you screwing anyway?” was apparently Gabe’s idea of an appropriate greeting.

“And hello to you, too.”

“Look, Casanova, I don’t care if you’re some hotshot alpha. I bet I’d be able to kick your ass either way. Now, we both know that Cassie can use a good lay, so have at it.”

Dean spluttered, but was ignored as Gabe went on, “But my buddy told me that you were leaving your mating hormones all over my poor, unsuspecting bro and I can tell you right now: He’s not in any place in his life where that wouldn’t mess with his head. You’re supposed to help him cope, not add on to his neuroses.”

“Wow. When Cas told me about his busybody brother, I had no idea that he wasn’t exaggerating, but actually downplaying it.”

Wasn’t a brother supposed to tell him the exact opposite?! No funny business unless he wanted to make an honest omega out of him and mate him? What kind of a brother told an alpha that he should go and have casual sex with his omega brother as long as he didn’t think about mating?!

“I don’t think I approve of your tone,” Gabe said.

Dean rolled his eyes. “Cas can mate who he wants. Butt out.”

Why was he even talking about this with Gabe? It wasn’t like he was thinking about mating Cas.

When Gabe hung up with a huff, Dean quickly texted Cas that he had pissed off his brother before Gabe could badmouth him.

Fortunately, Cas seemed to think this was rather funny, and just like that, the awkwardness from waking up together in a position typically only mates found themselves in was gone. They complained about their brothers to each other and finally admitted that at least their brothers _meant_ well even if their meddling was sometimes exasperating.

When Dean went back for their next scent date, the tension momentarily came back when they sat down on the couch, and for the first time, Cas seemed hesitant about invading his personal space to start scenting. But then Dean just put his hand on the back of Cas’ head and pulled him against his neck. The sniffing started almost immediately and everything was back to normal.

Since they weren’t watching a movie this time, Dean just started talking about his day, which was relaxing in its own way, and soon, he got Cas to talk about what had happened in his life these last few days, too.

The omega mentioned an alpha who had come on a bit strong at the bookstore a few days earlier, and even though Cas downplayed the whole thing, Dean immediately connected the dots to Cas’ restlessness that night they had fallen asleep together.

From then on, Dean made sure that at the end of their appointments, when Cas handed him the money, he would casually brush across his wrists—easily mistaken for an accident—and when leaning around Cas to get his jacket, he would ‘accidentally’ brush his scent gland against Cas’.

Of course, his scent would come off the next time Cas took a shower, but it made him feel like he protected Cas from unwanted alpha attention the best way he could, given the circumstances.

He just hoped Cas would stay unaware that he was secretly scent-marking him. Then again, this was _Cas_, who still didn’t have a clue that continuously bumping Dean’s scent gland with his nose was generally considered a come on, so he figured he was safe.

* * *

It was a few weeks later when Dean’s saint-like restraint finally snapped.

He had picked up on the change in scent as soon as Cas had opened the door and when the omega, who was very clearly mere _days_ before going into heat, obliviously pressed himself against Dean as he began scenting the _shit_ out of him, Dean excused himself and locked himself in the bathroom.

He splashed some water on his face and took a few deep breaths. He felt like he was going insane with the need to scent Cas back. Well, and if he was honest with himself, he wanted to do more than scent, too.

Fuck it—there was no way he would survive this scenting session without taking the edge off.

He quickly pushed down his pants and boxers and closed his eyes when he began palming himself, just barely suppressing a groan. The pre-heat scent was _everywhere_.

It didn’t take long at all for him to start panting, almost there, _almost there._

“Dean?”

Hearing the voice was all it took. It sent Dean tumbling over the edge right there in Cas’ bathroom.

“Are you okay?” Cas called, sounding concerned of all things.

Dean tried to make his voice sound normal as he yelled back, “Be right out!”

_Shit! _There was no way Cas wouldn’t smell on him what he had just done. To make matters worse, he had popped a knot, which _never_ happened when he was just rubbing one out.

He wiped himself clean and pulled his pants back up, careful not to squeeze his tender knot. It was a very tight fit, but it would have to do. Next step: Searching for something to mask the scent of alpha spunk.

As luck would have it, he found some sort of air freshener spray and almost used the whole bottle to chase away the scent in the bathroom, and then on himself.

He might have used a bit much because when he joined Cas again, the omega had to sneeze a couple of times. But he didn’t complain and instead, went right back to scenting Dean.

Dean was too tense to relax. His knot was squished uncomfortably in his jeans, and he had no idea if Cas could scent his post-orgasmic hormones.

He had to say something. But how should he delicately address that Cas’ pre-heat scent was making it impossible for Dean to think about anything but rubbing himself all over the omega? And _into_ the omega, and… Great, apparently, one orgasm hadn’t been enough for his traitorous dick.

Dean cleared his throat. “Remember when you said you’d be willing to wear scent blockers?” he asked, oh so casually. “That offer still on the table?”

There, that had been a very diplomatic way of saying, ‘Your scent drives me crazy and makes me want to mount you right here, right now. Oh, and also, I’ve been beating off to the memory of your scent basically since day one.’

Cas stopped scenting immediately and slid away a bit.

“Oh. Uhm… Yes, of course. Absolutely. Let me just…” He motioned to the bedroom and then quickly got up and vanished through the bedroom door.

Dean sighed in relief. Crisis successfully averted. Of course, Cas’ delicious scent was still all over the apartment, but at least Cas himself wouldn’t smell like an invitation to bend him over the couch and have his way with him.

He might get through the rest of the hour without jumping the omega and screwing him senseless after all.


	5. Chapter 5

Cas basically poured the whole bottle of scent blockers over himself, trying to chase away his stupid scent. He was mortified that Dean had had to ask him to put on scent blockers—he should have done that from the very beginning!

But he had gotten comfortable around Dean, actually enjoying the way their scents mixed. These last few times Dean had come over, Cas had gotten into the habit of cuddling up against him in order to take in his comforting scent. It wasn’t until then that he realized how much he had missed human contact.

Usually, he didn’t like being touched, which was why he rarely let other people close enough to offer physical comfort. With Dean, though, he didn’t mind. Well, that was a lie. He actually _hoped_ for Dean to put his arm around him or touch him in any other way.

Sometimes, Dean would accidentally brush against him when he left. The alpha wasn’t even aware of it, but he occasionally left his scent on Cas. It almost felt like being scent-marked, and it felt _amazing_! Although Cas also felt a bit like a creep for enjoying it so much when Dean didn’t even know he was doing it.

Cas also slept on the couch from time to time when he had trouble falling asleep. Dean’s scent was usually all over it and it helped him calm down.

Of course, the fact that Cas found Dean’s scent so alluring had been the reason he had chosen the alpha in the first place. But he had gotten the impression that Dean didn’t find his scent completely repulsive, too.

So, Cas had decided to test the waters. If an alpha and an omega were compatible, the alpha would like the omega’s scent—especially when they were in heat. Inviting Dean over while he was already in pre-heat had been very forward of him. A way of testing how Dean would react to his scent.

At least now, he knew. Dean did not find his scent as enticing as Cas found Dean’s.

He just hoped he could fake his way through the rest of the hour, pretending the fact that Dean had rejected him did not affect him the way it did. At least, his scent couldn’t give him away with the blockers…

* * *

Dean had not heard from Cas since he had gone into heat. The rest of their pre-heat scent date had been awkward to say the least. At the end, when they had said their goodbyes, Cas had said that he would call him after his heat.

That had been over two weeks ago.

After ten days, Dean had googled how long omegas could be in heat. Turned out, if they didn’t have an alpha, it could take longer. But still, two weeks was _very_ long even for single omegas.

Dean suspected he knew why Cas hadn’t called. He had obviously figured out that Dean had beaten off to his scent and was disgusted by it.

He took out his cell phone and stared at it for a while, but then he put it away again without texting Cas. What would he even say? _Sorry for jerking one out in your bathroom?_

The omega probably didn’t want to scent a perv anymore. Not that Dean could blame him. His behavior had been inexcusable, like those alpha rapists whose defense was ‘the omega’s heat made me do it.’

* * *

Cas’ heat had been rough on him. Normally, he got through his heats okay and couldn’t even understand why some omegas moaned about fake knots not being the real deal. Now, he understood the craving for something more. He knew that real knots hurt like hell, though.

He hadn’t really craved a knot, anyway, but a scent. A certain someone’s scent, to be exact. His heart had ached for that scent, and his stomach had ached because… well, Cas didn’t know why, and basically _everything_ had ached in yearning.

The worst part was that Cas’ omega had felt rejected, even though he couldn’t figure out why. Going through heat while his omega was suffering from rejection had not been easy.

Now that he was finally out of heat, he knew that he _wanted_ to call Dean for another appointment. He had missed his scent like crazy. But Dean had made it perfectly clear that he didn’t want to smell his scent and Cas knew he had to rip off the band-aid before it was too late.

So when he finally got up the nerve to call the alpha, he stumbled his way through a lie, telling him that his therapist had said he was all healed and didn’t need the scentings anymore. He had the panic attacks under control.

When Dean was silent for a moment too long, Cas realized that he had never even told him about the panic attacks to begin with.

He quickly finished with, “So, anyway, your scent helped. Thank you,” and hung up before he could do something stupid like ask Dean to come over.

* * *

Not even a whole week had passed when the universe decided to punish him for his lie. As if he hadn’t been punished enough already by having a miserable week, constantly thinking about a certain green-eyed alpha he would likely never see again.

Cas was just walking home from the supermarket, carrying a bag of groceries when he saw a pack of alphas approach. No, not a pack, just three, probably friends who were also out shopping, nothing to be scared of.

Nothing to be scared of. Nothing…

Cas tried to imagine Dean’s slightly earthy scent—freshly cut wood and campfire mixed with the subtle scent of a summer night’s breeze—but when the alphas came closer, he picked up on the scent of rut, chasing away any memory of Dean’s calming scent. One of the alphas had to be about to start his rut or maybe he had just come off it.

That was the last coherent thought he had before the rational part of Cas’ brain shut off.

He dropped his bag of groceries when the alphas were in attacking distance, and took off as fast as he could. Trying to outrun an alpha was a bad idea, but his flight instinct had kicked in without consulting his brain first.

He was vaguely aware of one of the alphas yelling after him, “What are you, crazy?” and some commotion behind him, but he didn’t look back. He had no way of knowing if the alphas were after him. The nauseating scent was as strong as ever, but it might just be stuck in Cas’ mind.

His knees felt weak and about to give out under him when he finally reached his apartment. He quickly fumbled for the keys, almost dropping them before he got the door to open. He slammed it shut after him, locked it and leaned against it, breathing heavily.

Silence. No alpha voices, no running, nothing. He had left the alphas behind.

He sunk down against the closed door, trying to do the breathing exercises his therapist had taught him.

His hands were shaking like a leaf and it was only when he looked at them and saw a drop of water land on the back of his hand that he realized he was sobbing uncontrollably.

He fumbled for his phone, trying to get his trembling hands to scroll to Doctor Fuller’s number. Before he found it, though, he spotted Dean’s number through his tears, and sent a quick text message without thinking about it.

Only after the answer came back (“on my way”), did he realize that his fingers hadn’t hit all the right buttons. His message read, “coildyo cone by?panic atac.”

The thought that Dean would be here soon gave Cas the strength to haul himself over to the couch, where he buried his face in the cushions, trying to chase Dean’s scent. Unfortunately, since he had scented them constantly the last few days, his own scent was drowning out Dean’s.

He shivered and tried to forget about the scent of alpha near his rut, but then someone was at his door and Cas froze in fear.


	6. Chapter 6

Dean might have broken a few traffic rules on his way to Cas, alpha instincts taking over and telling him to get to the omega ASAP. He had been excited when he had finally gotten a message from Cas—and then extremely worried when he had read it.

That’s why he made it to Cas’ apartment in record time—but when he knocked, no one answered.

“Cas? You in there?” he yelled and was already taking out his phone to try and get a hold of him when the door finally opened.

The smell of omega in distress hit him first and then he saw how pale Cas was, trembling and looking up at him with wide, terrified eyes.

The next second, Cas’ legs buckled under him and Dean took a quick step forward to catch him before he went down. Dean had enough sense to close the door before he picked Cas up and carried him to the couch.

Cas didn’t seem to be tracking right, his eyes unfocused and glazed over, and he just let Dean do whatever he wanted.

Luckily, some kind of instinct was taking over. Dean found a blanket to wrap around Cas and then climbed onto the couch next to him and pulled Cas’ head against his neck.

The omega didn’t start scenting, though, but just lay there unresponsive, still shivering even with the blanket wrapped tightly around him.

Dean tried to exude a calm and reassuring scent even though he was kind of freaked out to see Cas like that. Stroking over the omega’s back, he promised in a gentle voice that he was safe and that everything would be okay.

Finally, Cas started breathing him in, taking little sniffs at first and then, when the trembling began to subside, deeper ones.

After a while, the trembling stopped completely and the scent of omega in agony was getting less pungent and was replaced by Cas’ sweet scent.

There was a trace of scent blockers left, but most of it had been washed off by the cold sweats, leaving Dean yearning to scent Cas, too, to make sure the omega really was okay.

They lay like that for a while, neither of them speaking, Cas with his face buried against Dean’s neck, and Dean’s hand still resting gently against the back of the omega’s head, keeping him there.

“So—your therapist sure was wrong, huh?” Dean said after a while when Cas’ scent had completely returned to normal.

“Sorry,” Cas said, but when he tried to extract himself from the weirdly intimate position they found themselves in, Dean just pulled him back in.

“No problem,” he quickly said because he would much rather have Cas call him when in need than not even know when he needed help. Plus, he had really missed having the omega close. Having him in his arms only showed him what had been missing these last few days.

Not that he could say that without sounding like a creep…

“Dean?” Cas asked, very quietly.

“Yeah?”

“Do you mind… I mean… Can you stay for a while?” Cas sounded hesitant—as if there was any way Dean would just leave him alone like this. “I’ll put on blockers,” the omega quickly added.

Again, Cas tried to get up, and again, Dean pulled him back in.

“No, don’t,” he said. _You smell amazing. I can’t get enough of your scent. I would give you back all the money if I could just scent you once._ “I don’t mind.”

Cas could take that as ‘I don’t mind staying’ or ‘I don’t mind the scent.’ Both worked just fine, even if it was an understatement either way.

Cas sank back against him bonelessly and scented him some more.

“Leather,” Cas suddenly mumbled.

“Excuse me?”

“That’s what was missing. I tried to imagine your scent earlier. There’s this one component I was missing. Like the cover of an old, leather-bound book.”

“Lit candle and pine needles,” Dean countered because even without scenting Cas, those elements were right there on the surface.

Cas sniffed at his scent gland and said, “Campfire. Freshly cut wood.”

Yeah. That was his outdoorsy personality coming through. He had heard variations thereof when other people described his scent.

Dean didn’t have anything else to say because while he really enjoyed Cas’ scent, it was a mixture of so many different things that he’d have to really scent him to tell the elements apart.

Deciding to take a chance, Dean just went for it. He hesitantly moved his own head closer to Cas’ neck, and when the omega didn’t pull away, he carefully nosed along his scent gland.

Finally. This felt like coming home.

“Sandalwood. Old books,” Dean stated.

“That’s not my scent, that’s just from the bookstore,” Cas retorted.

“Sandalwood?” Dean repeated mock-surprised, just to get a reaction out of Cas.

The reaction came in form of a punch in the arm, but there was no force behind it, so that it was barely more than a soft touch.

“Not that. The books,” Cas clarified.

“You sell old books?” Dean teased. He knew that it was a part of Cas’ scent and not just from the bookstore.

It was funny how Cas’ and Dean’s scents complimented each other. Something to think about when Dean wasn’t too busy scenting the omega.

“Summer night’s breeze,” Cas sighed instead of reacting to Dean’s teasing.

“Now you’re just making shit up,” Dean laughed before burying his nose against Cas’ neck again. Now that he had the implicit permission, he would make the most of it and scent Cas for all he was worth.

Somehow, that only seemed to calm Cas down even more. The omega sagged against him more heavily and they were quietly scenting each other for a while.

“Home,” Cas finally finished on a sigh, his voice sleepy as if he was about to nod off after all the excitement, the adrenaline probably gone, leaving him vulnerable and exhausted.

They were quiet again, coming down from all the excitement and just enjoying being so close.

After a while, Dean thought he heard Cas mumble, “Missed this.” But maybe that was just wishful thinking…


	7. Chapter 7

This time around, waking up like this—warm, cozy, next to the smell of ‘mate’—wasn’t new. It wasn’t as comfortable as when they had slept together in Cas’ bed, either, but it still felt… _right_.

Cas opened his eyes and blinked up at Dean, apparently still a bit disoriented. He looked so cute, his hair sticking up in every direction even worse so than usual that Dean couldn’t help but smile down at him.

“Mornin’ Sunshine,” he said.

“Did we…” Cas began, and Dean quickly said, “No!” before Cas finished, “…fall asleep again?”

“Oh. Well, that. Yeah.”

Cas made some sort of humming sound in response but didn’t seem bothered in the slightest that Dean was still basically lying on top of him.

Dean decided to take advantage of the opportunity presented to him and ducked down to take a quick whiff of Cas’ scent gland. And then another one because Cas waking up early in the morning was a scent he could really get behind.

“Dean… what are you doing?”

He was caught now, so he might as well confess. “Scenting.”

“Yes, I know. I meant, why?”

Taking one last deep inhale, Dean left Cas’ scent gland alone for now and sat up so that he wasn’t smothering Cas.

“I got to thinking,” Dean began. “Your therapist clearly doesn’t know what he’s talking about if he said you were good to stop the scenting sessions.”

Cas averted his gaze at that, but Dean didn’t have time to figure out what Cas’ shifty eyes were all about. Instead, he had a proposition to make.

“So, how ’bout we just scent _each other_?” he continued. When Cas was tilting his head, clearly not on board yet, he went on to explain, “I read somewhere that _every_ unmated alpha and omega should make sure they don’t get scent deprived.”

He hadn’t actually read that. Sam had mentioned it, back when he had first told him about Cas and their rather peculiar arrangement.

“In any case, you wouldn’t have to pay me anymore. We’d just be like… cuddle buddies, y’know? Scentin’ buddies.”

Cas was still looking at him, head tilted. “But shouldn’t you find someone whose scent doesn’t bother you?” he finally asked.

‘Bother’ was a nice euphemism for ‘arouse.’ He was left ‘hot and bothered’ rather than just ‘bothered.’

Dean stammered his way through some sort of denial. “Oh, well… It’s perfectly natural if you scent someone… I mean, with scent compatibility and all… It’s not like I’d jump you, you know?” he finally settled on saying.

Cas furrowed his brows and seemed like he wanted to ask for clarification, but Dean really didn’t want to talk about how the omega made him want to forget all about chivalry and just make him his.

“So… What happened yesterday, anyway?” he quickly changed the subject.

Cas’ scent was about to turn distressed again, so Dean leaned in close, making sure Cas got a whiff of his scent, which always managed to calm him down.

“I ran across some alphas,” Cas mumbled. “And one of them might have been about to go into rut or coming off a rut…” He trailed off and then quickly got out, “I can’t stand the scent of rut.”

That was strange. Dean had always thought that omegas liked the scent of alphas in rut the same way alphas responded to the scent of omegas in heat. At least if they were compatible for mating. Maybe Cas just had a hard time finding an alpha he was compatible with…

“It just… brings back memories,” Cas added when he saw Dean’s no doubt nonplussed expression.

Dean revised his theory about Cas not being compatible with lots of alphas. Maybe some boyfriend had been rough with him during his rut.

“So, did you—” Dean began asking, but he was interrupted by Cas.

“All right, I agree to the modification of our arrangement. I wouldn’t mind saving twenty dollars an hour just by letting you scent me back.”

Even though Cas had clearly been the one to change the subject this time, Dean didn’t really care. Just getting the opportunity to scent this awesome-smelling omega from now on was enough to make his heart do something strange inside his chest.

* * *

Finally getting to latch onto Cas’ scent gland for a change and scent to his heart’s content was _awesome_. He hadn’t realized it, but maybe he _had_ become scent deprived.

His scent deprivation had never seen it coming, but if he had ever suffered from it, Cas had definitely finished it off.

Their encounters took on another, more intimate quality from then on. The fact that Dean was now allowed to scent Cas as thoroughly as Cas scented him also meant that it was easier for Dean to stealthily scent-mark the omega, doing his best to continue to protect him.

Since scenting each other at the same time required some contortions, they usually just went straight for the bed so that they could find a more comfortable position, which would enable them to scent straight through the hour, without straining their necks or backs.

Dean never really paid attention to the movie they pretended to watch as an excuse for why they had to relocate to the bed. It was impossible to watch the screen while having his head buried in Cas’ shoulder anyway.

All in all, things were going great. Dean totally got why a therapist had suggested scent therapy. Even though he himself wasn’t suffering from panic attacks, all the scenting and getting scented was making him more even-tempered in everyday life. More happy, too.

During most scentings these days, Dean’s dick was behaving. It seemed to have gotten the message that this was as far as they were going to go—and in a way, just lying close, nosing each other’s necks was even better than sex anyway.

Pondering that fact, Dean realized that he hadn’t had sex since this whole thing with Cas had started. That was a long time for him to go without, but scenting Cas really was better than having sex with any other omega, so Dean’s alpha was satisfied.

At least it was for a while. Then, one day, in the middle of a scenting session, Dean’s dick decided that it had been celibate long enough and gave it another try.

They were lying on their sides, facing each other, no space left between their upper bodies—luckily some space left between them underneath the blankets. (Yes, there were blankets. Cas had been a bit chilly. And Dean had to admit that it really was quite comfortable lying next to Cas, wrapped in blankets—warm and cozy.)

Cas had been scenting like crazy ever since he had gotten here, which might be why his dick had decided to come out to play.

Dean caught himself just in time before undulating his hips—and that’s when he realized what was going on. The first stirrings of his rut!

Remembering what Cas had said about not being able to stand the scent of rut, Dean tried to extract himself. He would not be responsible for making Cas have a panic attack! After all, Dean didn’t want Cas to associate him with bad things or even call off their whole scent/cuddle buddy system.

Trying to slip out of the bed turned out to be harder than he thought, though, because Cas followed him, pulling him closer again and mumbling, “The hour isn’t up yet.”

“Yeah, I know,” Dean acknowledged. “But you need to stop scenting me.”

He made another attempt to break free from Cas, but the omega had apparently turned into an octopus. He made some sort of noise that was all stubborn omega and ‘Nope, you’re staying here.’

Dean heaved a sigh. Seemed like subtle wouldn’t work. Maybe blunt did.

“My rut is coming on,” Dean declared, sure that this would get Cas to let go. He was actually surprised that the omega hadn’t picked up on it yet, but maybe it was still too early for Cas to freak out about the scent.

Instead of recoiling, Cas rolled his eyes as if Dean was just being silly, and went right back to scenting, mumbling, “Don’t be ridiculous. I know what rut smells like. Depravity and filth. _You_ smell _great_.”

Depravity and filth? Somehow, Dean doubted that that was what rut smelled like for most omegas. Otherwise, no alpha in rut would ever get some tail.

“I think I know when my rut is coming on,” Dean countered. “I mean, it might still be a while until it really hits, maybe tomorrow…”

“Great,” Cas interrupted him. “Then you still have some time.”

And there his nose went, grazing Dean’s scent gland and taking a particularly deep whiff.

Great, Dean’s dick seemed to really like bossy Cas. Seriously—how did the omega miss how turned on Dean was?!

“Just trying to make sure you’re not freaking out,” Dean mumbled, petulantly. That’s what he got for trying to be considerate. Well, and trying to make sure the situation didn’t take an embarrassing turn for him.

“Just… stop squirming,” Cas said, chasing after Dean again, and that’s when it happened.

All the moving around had not only gotten them to the very edge of the bed, with Dean almost in danger of falling off—it had also resulted in the blanket slipping down.

Cas was squinting at Dean’s crotch as if he had never seen a boner before. Dean tried to shift his weight to make it less obvious, trying to come up with an excuse for what he could have in his pants, but it was already too late.

“Are you aroused?” Cas asked, tilting his head, still staring at Dean’s crotch.

“I told you, man, I’m going into rut.” That was a pretty safe excuse at least.

Cas didn’t seem to realize they were having an awkward moment here, because he didn’t have any qualms about going in for another whiff of his scent gland.

“You don’t _smell_ aroused.” His eyes flitted back to his boner as if he still couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Dean tried very hard not to use the blanket to cover it up again. No sense in it now. The cat—or better, erection was out of the bag, as they said…

“Yeah, well. I am.”

“Oh,” Cas said, still with that stunned expression.

“So, I’m just gonna…”

This time when Dean tried to get out of bed, he succeeded.

Finally, the awkwardness of the situation seemed to catch up with Cas, who, while walking Dean to the door, was avoiding eye contact, a blush on his face.

“See you in a few days?” Cas asked timidly, biting at his bottom lip. Maybe he was afraid Dean was about to come on to him.

“Yeah,” Dean said and gave him a small wave. Best not to initiate physical contact.

But then Cas pulled him into a quick hug. Their scent glands were touching, brushing against each other almost casually.

What was Cas doing? It seemed like he was using Dean’s trick to ‘accidentally on purpose’ scent-mark him. But he had no reason to scent-mark Dean. Plus, Cas wasn’t that subtle, surely.

Dean’s oncoming rut was making him imagine things…

Since Cas already had his arms around him anyway, Dean took a quick whiff of his scent for the road—and then he had to let go or else he would _really_ embarrass himself.

On his way home, even though he missed Cas already, Dean couldn’t keep a smile off his face. Cas didn’t like the scent of rut, but he had told Dean he smelled ‘great.’ His alpha was positively preening from the compliment.


	8. Chapter 8

Cas hadn’t wanted to let Dean go, not when he had smelled so great and it had been so comfortable lying next to him, but the alpha had seemed dead set on leaving.

So, when they had said goodbye at the door, some sort of instinct had made Cas _scent-mark_ Dean, which was ridiculous, of course, because Dean wasn’t Cas’ alpha to scent-mark.

But just thinking about the fact that Dean might spend his rut with another omega… Scent-marking him had really been for Dean’s own protection, just in case some skanky omega wanted to use him for a one-night stand. Okay, so the argument was pretty thin, and Cas was apparently a selfish assbutt.

What kind of an omega went around scent-marking his _scenting buddy_? (To be fair, there probably weren’t many ‘scenting buddies’ outside of mates. Cas was pretty sure that Dean had made that term up.)

All in all, Cas was still surprised at his own behavior and not just about the impromptu scent-marking. He hadn’t even freaked out when he had realized that Dean was aroused. That was a huge step as he was sure his therapist would agree on. Even a hint of alpha arousal was usually enough to freak him out big time.

And thinking about it… Cas still couldn’t believe that it had been _arousal _he had smelled. Granted, he hadn’t smelled alpha arousal often, but he still remembered alcohol mixed with rut and something like rotten milk—a scent combination that made him want to vomit whenever a flash of memory flitted through his mind.

What was more, Cas realized that Dean might have been aroused during their scentings before. He had realized that Dean’s scent had occasionally turned especially delicious. Could Dean have been aroused those times, too? And if he was, what did it mean?

Cas hadn’t known that alphas could be physically attracted to omegas whose scent didn’t appeal to them. Of course, ever since Dean had started scenting him, too, Cas had started to doubt that the alpha didn’t like his scent, anyway. Dean basically drank in Cas’ scent, sighing contently, borrowing into him to get as much of his scent as he could… 

Cas was pretty sure they were scent compatible. Why Dean hadn’t cared for his pre-heat scent still remained a mystery, but Dean definitely seemed to like his normal scent well enough.

Fact was, Cas was more confused than freaked out about all of it. His scenting buddy wouldn’t take Cas against his will, that much Cas knew for certain, so there was no reason to freak out.

* * *

Dean hadn’t taken a shower ever since Cas had casually—whether accidentally or on purpose—scent-marked him. By the end of his rut, he was so gross that he had to wash off all the evidence of the rut, though. By that time, Cas’ scent on him was nothing more than a phantom scent anyway.

The memory of Cas’ scent gland brushing against his own had helped him through his rut, making for some powerful orgasms.

Just to make sure his post-rut scent didn’t trigger a panic attack for Cas, Dean decided to stay away a couple of days longer, and instead called Sam to whine about the fact that he missed Cas’ scent.

Of course, his pain in the ass of a brother took it all the wrong way.

“Those are rejection symptoms,” he promptly said.

Dean rolled his eyes at how utterly clueless Sam was. “Don’t be ridiculous. I see him almost every day.”

“So, it’s almost every day now? What happened to twice a week?”

Damn, maybe he shouldn’t tell his little brother every little detail about this arrangement he had with Cas.

“What happened to you minding your own business?” Dean shot back, defensive.

“You know, rejection doesn’t only affect alphas whose omega outwardly turns them down,” Sam went on, ignoring Dean’s hint to stop talking. “Actually, if you’re very close, but feel like you don’t mean the same to him as he does to you, that might be just as bad.”

Dean thought about shutting him up by simply hanging up, but Sam would probably see that as an admission that he was right, so Dean fell back on sarcasm instead. “Look who got his M.D. without telling me.”

“Shut up. I warned you. How did you think regularly scenting an unmated omega you are clearly compatible with would _not_ lead to you scent bonding with him?”

_What?!_

“So, now Cas and I are scent-bonded?” Dean asked, letting his disbelief bleed through.

Sam didn’t seem fazed, though. “Clearly. I mean, you probably scent each other more than any newly-mated couples do.”

Well… yes. That’s what scenting buddies _did_. “You’re completely wrong,” Dean said. “I’ve never scent-bonded with anyone before.”

Clearly, he’d have realized if he’d frigging _scent-bonded_ with Cas. Was that even possible without claiming each other? His treacherous mind reminded him that he had kind of scent-marked Cas… a lot… and that last time, Cas had returned the favor.

“As always, flawless logic you’ve got there,” Sam said, his eye-roll evident in his voice. “Because you’ve never done it before, that means it’s impossible that you’ve done it with Cas.”

“Now you’re catching on!”

There was a short pause in which Dean was pretty sure Sam was rolling his eyes again. “Have fun pining,” his brother then said.

Since there was no way Dean would admit that pining was kind of what he was doing, he called him ‘bitch,’ waited for the obligatory ‘jerk’ in reply, and hung up.

* * *

After Dean’s rut was finally over (Cas had counted the days), Cas had been happy to find no trace of omega scent on Dean when they next met up. Of course, Dean probably scrubbed himself clean of any lingering scent, but Cas’ omega was satisfied anyway after inconspicuously scenting down Dean’s arms, his hair—pretty much any place he could safely get away with.

Their arrangement expanded yet again.

According to Dean, one hour wasn’t really a long time to scent. He had quoted some study that showed that regular, _prolonged_ scentings led to a healthier lifestyle. And since just sitting (or lying) there scenting each other might get kind of boring in the long run, the next logical step was for them to extend their whole scenting buddy relationship to sleeping together.

Not _sleeping_ sleeping together, of course, but really just sleeping. No funny business. Just to get in enough scenting time and stay healthy.

Dean’s explanation made perfect sense to Cas, who had nodded along, surprised at how much research Dean had done on this topic.

Cas didn’t doubt for a second that breathing in Dean’s calming scent overnight would make him feel more secure during the day. Still, seeing Dean in PJs that proclaimed ‘I wuv hugz’ and cuddling to sleep at night next to the alpha strangely enough awakened some kind of yearning inside of Cas that only grew over time.

Without any idea of what his omega’s problem was, Cas usually just scooted closer to Dean whenever such a yearning arose, and then Dean would put an arm around him and Cas’ omega would quiet down for the time being.

Maybe he should bring his omega’s strange behavior up with his therapist. Might be related to his aversion to alphas. Only, it didn’t really feel like an aversion. It felt like the opposite of an aversion. It felt like something Cas had never felt before and that was confusing the hell out of him.


	9. Chapter 9

Cas was climbing into bed next to Dean to get their scenting ritual started.

As always when his nose found Dean’s scent gland these days, he felt a strange fluttering sensation in his chest, which he tried to ignore.

The alpha gently pulled him closer so that he could return the favor, pressing his nose against Cas’ neck and inhaling deeply.

Dean scenting him like he meant business made the fluttering in his chest travel down to his stomach and then lower still.

Again, that familiar yearning inside of him rose and Cas pressed himself against Dean, silently asking for that hand on the small of his back, which would safely secure Cas in their embrace, soothing his omega.

Dean didn’t disappoint. The hand pulled him snug against the alpha and then just stayed there, gently stroking up and down his lower back, bringing back the tingling feeling with a vengeance.

It wasn’t enough. The yearning wasn’t quenched. Cas’ omega needed more.

Cas pressed himself against Dean, nuzzling into him, hoping that the alpha might be able to instinctively know what to do.

Dean’s stroking had made Cas’ pajama shirt ride up and the alpha’s hand was now leaving a trail of fire on his naked skin, which only made Cas long for more. More of what, he didn’t know, but he needed _more_.

“Dean,” he begged, not knowing what he was begging for, but knowing that he could trust Dean to provide it.

“You know what else helps lead a happier, healthier life?” the alpha asked, his voice sultry and deep, which didn’t help the tingling in Cas’ lower regions.

Cas made a questioning sound, nose still buried in Dean’s neck, and Dean continued, “Scenting all kinds of other places.”

When he didn’t elaborate, Cas stopped scenting long enough to look at Dean and tilt his head. “What other places?”

Dean shrugged. “Y’know.” His eyes traveled down Cas’ body, leaving a tingling sensation behind wherever his gaze went. “For example each other’s private parts. There’s a different scent down there that helps release endorphins.”

He did a funny thing with his eyebrows, and Cas heard himself reply, “We should test that theory.”

Dean gave him a huge smile that made Cas’ stomach do somersaults, and said, “I thought it would be worth a try.”

Then he scooted down and slowly lowered Cas’ pants, freeing Cas’ cock, which was a bit shy at first but filled out when Dean brushed against it. The alpha immediately started scenting along his penis, sending goosebumps down Cas’ spine.

“Getting a taste helps, too,” Dean casually mentioned before proceeding to lick a long stripe from base to tip, making Cas gasp out loud.

An _alpha_ was _licking_ _his penis_! Cas’ dick twitched with interest.

Dean looked up at him and winked before scenting along Cas’ dick once more.

_Please take it in your mouth, please take it in your mouth, please…_

Dean’s lips wrapped around the head of his dick, tonguing at the slit and Cas almost lost it, trying to fuck into Dean’s mouth, even though he was an _alpha_ and this was _highly_ inappropriate.

“Getting regular blowjobs from an alpha might help prevent panic attacks,” Doctor Fuller said from the other side of the room, scribbling down some notes.

That made perfect sense. Cas rocked into Dean’s mouth and was so close to spending himself down his throat when—

Cas woke up basically _humping_ Dean’s leg. What was going on? He scooted back a few inches, slowly and carefully as to not wake Dean.

The alpha was breathing evenly, looking adorable as ever while asleep, completely unaware of being molested by an omega in his sleep.

Cas was sitting there, gobsmacked for a second. Of course he’d had sex dreams before, after the event, but those had been nightmares. Dreams of running, being caught, being unable to stop some faceless alphas from pushing into him and hurting him. He had never had a dream where he had _enjoyed_—

Oh God, and he had _slicked_. Right through his underwear. Dean would _so_ be able to smell it when he woke up!

Cas tried his best not to panic and instead settled on anger. This was all Gabe’s fault! Cas had let news about their new arrangement slip and then Gabe had said that Dean was trying to get into his pants and that Cas better buckle up because he was going to get fucked. That’s where the confusing dream had come from for sure!

Ever since that comment, Cas couldn’t get the thought out of his head that maybe, he was leading Dean on—which was a dangerous game to play with any alpha.

Alphas wanted to fuck and knot omegas—everyone knew that, and Cas had learned that the hard way. The fact that Cas had slept next to an alpha more than once and hadn’t woken up in the middle of the night with a knot in his ass was only because Dean was such a sweet alpha. Cas trusted him not to give in to any breeding instincts.

As a matter of fact, Cas had never even thought about the implications when he had agreed to extend their scentings to Dean staying the night. Dean hadn’t even done anything when he had been about to go into rut. That’s how much control Dean had over his alpha.

Only Gabe had to go and ruin it all by making lewd comments about their perfectly platonic scenting/cuddling/sleeping buddy thing.

So now Cas’ dream about the alpha had made him slick all over the mattress he currently shared with said alpha, which brought him back to the matter at hand.

First things first. All Cas had to do was sneak out of bed, change his underpants and pajama bottoms, get something to cover the scent and pour it all over the wet patch on the mattress. That was as good a plan as any.

Cas was just getting ready to implement said plan when he looked at Dean and saw the alpha slowly blink his eyes open.

Cas was helpless to watch as Dean’s nose twitched, taking in the first scent of the morning—which would be omega slick. When Dean’s eyes found his and a surprised look flitted across his face, Cas groaned and closed his eyes in mortification.

There was a beat of stunned silence, in which Cas prayed that this was all still part of a dream and that he would wake up for real soon.

No such luck.

“Don’t worry ’bout it.” Dean’s voice was still a bit scratchy from sleep. “Had to happen sooner or later.”

Cas carefully opened one eye to see if Dean was as blasé about it as he seemed just as Dean pulled him closer and placed a kiss on his head.

What?

Wait.

_What?_

Why was Dean going around kissing the top of his head? Was that a scenting buddy thing? It seemed like a strange way of saying ‘Don’t worry about the slicking, bro.’

“Dean?” Cas asked, trying to make sense of what was going on.

But the alpha had already closed his eyes again.

“Go back to sleep,” he mumbled. “’s too early.”

Cas should really clarify that he wasn’t trying to lead the alpha on. Lying securely in Dean’s arms didn’t seem like the best moment for it, though. Snuggling against the strong arms holding him close, Cas closed his eyes instead.

He fleetingly wondered about the fact that he wasn’t scared at all. He was lying next to an alpha, vulnerable as can be, the scent of slick still in the air, but he actually felt safer than he ever had in his life.

Dean had been right, though—it _was_ still early. He still had time to make the alpha aware of his issues later. With that thought, Cas let himself be even more vulnerable and drift off.

* * *

Dean hadn’t meant to kiss Cas. It had just happened because he had been sleepy and Cas had been about to freak out and it had seemed like a good way of saying “I gotcha.”

(Okay, and maybe also “I kinda like you,” and “You’re awesome,” and “God, I just want to hold you close forever and never let go.”)

The best way to go about dealing with it in Dean’s book was to just ignore it had happened, as always when his feelings were getting to be too much.

Unfortunately, Cas didn’t seem to agree with that approach.

The first thing he said when they woke up for good, limbs intertwined, so close together that Dean could feel the omega’s heartbeat, was, “I don’t enjoy being touched.”

Dean let his eyes travel down to where they were touching—Cas was basically lying on top of him. He’d been touching him… kind of a _lot_. He sometimes got Cas to purr like a cat when he touched the right spot—a scratch of Cas’ neck, a warm breath ghosting over his scent gland... If any omega liked being touched and cuddled, it was Cas.

Still, Dean suspected this was about him stealth-kissing Cas, and so to respect his wishes, he untangled their limbs and withdrew. Or tried to, anyway.

“I didn’t mean like that!” Cas said quickly as he snatched Dean’s hand and put it back on his chest. “I like that.”

His statement was accompanied by an adorable blush that made Dean want to cuddle him some more. He didn’t, of course, since Cas had just told him he didn’t enjoy it.

“Uhm… okay?” Dean said. Maybe he wasn’t fully awake yet, but Cas didn’t make any sense. That’s why he added, “I’m confused.”

Cas blinked at him, then his eyes flitted away and he started rambling, “You probably don’t even think of me like that, but my brother said something, and I just thought maybe you should know in case you thought… Not that I really think you think about that, but you’re an alpha, so, maybe you do. The thing is… I don’t enjoy intercourse. I mean, I’ve heard it can be enjoyable for the omega as well if there’s enough slick, but in my experience taking a knot is _very_ uncomfortable, and Gabe said ‘scenting buddies’ is just a fancy way of saying ‘fuck buddies’ and I just—I don’t…”

Cas seemed close to hyperventilating, so Dean pulled him against his chest. They were so well-practiced at it that Cas immediately calmed down when he started scenting. Still, Dean kept Cas’ head against his neck for a little longer just to be on the safe side.

“Are you freaking out because of the slick?” he asked because an innocent kiss to the top of the head hardly seemed enough to make Cas spiral like that. When Cas just shrugged against him, Dean went on, “Omegas slick in their sleep occasionally. Big deal. I can’t believe that _I’m_ the one who has to tell _you_ that it’s perfectly normal.” After a beat of silence, he added, “I didn’t think it was a come-on if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Cas finally let go of him and when he looked at him, the panic was gone from his eyes. “I _told_ my brother that that’s not what you wanted. He just got into my head…”

Well… it was kind of what Dean wanted. Not the ‘fuck buddy’ thing—thanks very much Gabe for making Cas worry about that. But of course he had had a fantasy or two about the omega that were well above PG-rated.

They were silent for a moment, but it wasn’t a silence charged with tension. Not quite a comfortable silence either, but on its way there.

Dean should really keep his mouth shut. He had just managed to keep Cas from freaking out. Talking about sex while lying next to your scenting buddy who had just told you that he didn’t enjoy sex seemed like a horrible idea.

Dean’s mouth did not agree.

“So, is it just the knotting or any kind of sex?”


	10. Chapter 10

Cas had no idea what to say to that, mainly because he didn’t really know the answer himself. The only time an alpha—or, well, _alphas_—had taken him, it had been against his will, and when he had tried to fight them off, they had been very rough. He hadn’t even slicked, so of course it had hurt a lot.

Was he ready to tell Dean that the only experience he had with sex was a painful one that had given him nightmares and made him so scared of alphas that he couldn’t face a group of them without flashing back to that experience? That he couldn’t imagine how an alpha’s big penis being pushed into his ass could possibly _not_ hurt even though logically, he knew that other omegas enjoyed it? That he had never even thought about doing anything with an alpha? Until recently, that was…

He opened his mouth to answer, even though he didn’t even know what his answer was going to be, when a noise from outside the bedroom made him look up. Keys. Someone was at the front door.

Of course, only one person had keys to his apartment, but that person was supposed to be two states away.

“Who…” Dean began asking, but Gabe was already kicking open the bedroom door, dragging a suitcase behind him, which was about half his size.

“Heeeeeeell-oh!” he interrupted himself when his eyes took in the scene he had walked in on.

Cas quickly scooted away from Dean a bit so that Gabe wouldn’t get the wrong impression (which he probably already had).

Dean certainly didn’t help by asking, nonchalant as ever, “We expecting company?”

Deciding to ignore him for the time being, Cas addressed his brother instead, “Gabe—what are you doing here?”

Since he didn’t really feel like showing off his bee pajamas in front of his brother, he stayed in bed, pulling the bedspread up to his chin. Only when Gabe raised an expressive eyebrow did he realize that this made the whole situation look worse than it was.

“_This_ is Gabe?!” Dean asked, who probably hadn’t liked the idea of parading around in his PJs in front of a stranger and had used the same tactic to cover himself.

“I told you I was coming for a visit,” Gabe replied, similarly ignoring Dean.

“Wow, you’re so much shorter than I imagined!”

Cas jabbed Dean in the ribs for that comment. To Gabe, he said, “No, you didn’t.”

“I’m coming for a visit. So, now I did.” Then his nose twitched and his eyes snapped to Dean and narrowed to suspicious slits. “Did you scent-mark my brother?”

“Dude, we’re sleeping together,” Dean retorted, and Cas was quick to clarify, “He means in the same bed. Sleeping. Dreaming.—No unusual dreams, just… very normal dreams.”

Dean shot him a funny look before shaking his head and turning back to Gabe. “Anyway. Scents are bound to mix. Don’t see how that’s any of your business, though.”

Feeling that he had brought unwanted attention to the whole dream thing, Cas tried to dig himself out by elaborating, “Boring dreams, really. I think there might have been a dream about a giant honeybee following the route of flowers. You know, the whole plan, right there, without anything to add.”

“Why is he talking nonsense?” Gabe asked Dean, still sizing him up. Then he turned to Cas and asked in a gentler tone of voice, “Are you having a panic attack, Cassie?” And back to Dean with a glower. “Did you break him?”

“I’m not the one who marched in here uninvited.”

“Okay that’s it. You and me. Outside,” Gabe said, pointing over his shoulder with his thumb.

Cas buried his head in his hands.

Dean huffed a quick burst of laughter. “I’m not going to fight an omega who is two heads shorter than me.”

“I’m a beta, asshat.” Gabe puffed up his chest. “And _you’re_ two heads shorter!”

“Great comeback!”

“Gabe, Dean. Dean, Gabe,” Cas said, remembering that formally introducing them was the right thing to do.

Both Gabe and Dean were looking at him with an expression that very clearly stated ‘no shit!’

“So, how does this ‘scenting’ relationship work?” Gabe asked, his eyes flitting from Cas to Dean. “Night’s over, you go on your merry way, right?”

“Actually, I stay for breakfast,” Dean shot back.

Gabe huffed out a breath of air. “Well, that sucks. How are we supposed to talk about you, then?”

“Gabe,” Cas cut in to put an end to their verbal exchange. “Can you wait in the kitchen and give us some time to get dressed?”

Gabe huffed indignantly again, but took his suitcase and left the bedroom, closing the door behind him.

“He’s just a bit overprotective,” Cas tried to justify his brother as soon as they heard Gabe puttering around in the kitchen.

“Protective of what exactly?” Dean asked. “He already told me to have sex with you…”

“_What_?!”

“Oh. Haven’t told you about that, huh? Anyway, he’s fine pimping you out, but scent-marking is a no-no? Dude’s a pretty strange brother if you ask me. And that’s coming from someone who has a pretty strange brother himself.”

“You’re telling _me_,” Cas mumbled. Gabe would so get an earful later. Telling Dean to have sex with him? What was he thinking?!

“You’re not having sex in there while I’m out here waiting, are you?” Gabe yelled from the kitchen, making both Dean and Cas jump.

They usually got dressed in the bathroom, one after the other, but with Gabe out there and pressed for time, they just turned their backs to each other and quickly got dressed in the bedroom.

Cas was finished first and turned around without thinking, getting a good look at Dean’s naked back, powerful, lean muscles flexing as the alpha pulled up the zipper of his pants. For some reason, Cas’ heart rate picked up. He would really like to splay his hands over the alpha’s back and feel whether those muscles were as hard as they looked…

Cas only realized that he was staring when Dean pulled his shirt over his head. He quickly averted his eyes, even though there was nothing left to stare at anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finished Cuddle Buddies, which means I can start another fic. I have the first chapters for two different types of fics finished. What would you like to read: Witch Cas or Shifter AU?


	11. Chapter 11

According to Gabe, he had wanted to check out that new alpha in Cas’ life in person, which was what prompted his unplanned visit.

After listening to Dean and Gabe squabble like siblings all through breakfast, Cas was pleased to realize that Gabe—for all his flustered agitation—actually _liked_ Dean. Gabe didn’t just bicker with anyone, after all.

Once Dean had gone home (though not without leaving his scent all over Cas, probably to piss off Gabe), the conversation inevitably turned to the alpha.

Gabe pointed out that there was more of Dean’s stuff lying around Cas’ apartment than Cas’ (not true) and that the whole apartment smelled of their mixed scents (also not true). Cas just let his brother talk nonsense. When he brought up the idea of a scent bond, however, Cas couldn’t keep quiet anymore.

“We are _not_ scent-bonded,” Cas denied his brother’s absurd claim. “You heard Dean. Our scents just got mixed because we’re sleeping in the same bed.”

“I might be a beta, but my nose is working just fine,” Gabe insisted. “Do you even realize that you’re constantly leaning into his personal space? And what about him sharing his food with you?”

“It’s _my_ food,” Cas interjected. “If anything,_ I’m_ sharing with _him_. And you, apparently.”

Gabe just ignored his valid objection and went on, “I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had started feeding you from his hand.”

“I don’t have time for this,” Cas decided as he got up and gathered up the plates. “I actually have to go to the bookstore.”

“It’s Saturday,” Gabe said, unimpressed.

“So?”

“So, I’m coming with. Is your porn section any good?”

Cas just rolled his eyes.

* * *

So. Apparently, he had scent-bonded with an alpha. At least that explained why his heart was skipping a beat every time he looked into Dean’s eyes. Or why all he wanted to do was cuddle up next to him. Or why he had confusing dreams about the alpha… In short, it explained _a lot_.

After Gabe’s ludicrous comment, he hadn’t been able to help himself and had done some research—the bookstore actually had a great section about bonding and mating.

It turned out that scenting between adult alphas and omegas was mostly considered foreplay as it didn’t _necessarily _have to lead to the alpha mounting the omega, but most of the time, it did. That explained why Dean had smelled aroused on more than one occasion.

There were exceptions, of course. Family members or close friends might scent each other without sexual intent, which was probably why Doctor Fuller had suggested these two groups as candidates when he had first brought up scenting therapy.

Further research revealed that omegas who had scent-bonded with an alpha would daydream about his scent (check), miss the alpha when he wasn’t around (check), and experience the urge to scent-mark the alpha as well as enjoy getting scent-marked by them (check and check).

Cas really hated when Gabe was right about something. It didn’t happen a lot, but his brother sure loved gloating when it did. Cas might not tell him just yet...

* * *

Dean was so glad when Gabe finally packed his things and went back home. He hadn’t known that scent-blocking someone was a thing, but Gabe definitely excelled at it.

So, he had really looked forward to being able to scent Cas again. He had not, however, expected to have the omega show him a bunch of books detailing how scent bonds worked.

In some way, Dean was surprised that he _wasn’t _surprised. He had kind of known… and hadn’t cared one bit.

“As it says right here,” Cas concluded after basically holding a ten minute monologue on the formation and disruption of scent bonds, pointing to a passage in one of the books scattered around them, “We have to stay away from each other until the scent bond is broken, and even then we shouldn’t scent each other anymore or else we could scent-bond _again_.”

Dean tried to say something like, ‘Yeah, sure. Let’s do that,’ but no sound came out.

He felt like he had been punched in the gut. How could he go from having Cas, getting to sleep next to him and scent him as much as he wanted, no _needed, _to—not having Cas?

“Or…” Cas said, trailing off, unsure.

“Or?” Dean immediately asked. ‘Or’ sounded good. Everything that wasn’t ‘stay away from each other and stop scenting each other’ sounded good at this point.

“Well, we could just stay scent-bonded. I mean, who does it hurt, really? Nothing has changed apart from the fact that we now know that we’re scent-bonded. If you think about it, a scent bond is hardly more than biology’s way of saying that we like each other’s scents. Which we already knew anyway.”

Yeah, Dean more than ‘liked’ Cas’ scent. He loved him… _it_.

“And if you find someone you actually _want_ to scent-bond with, we could still break the bond, no harm done,” Cas finished.

Relief washed through Dean. Yes, that sounded like an _awesome_ idea! They’d just stay scent-bonded. Of course, Dean knew that there was no way he’d find someone else he’d rather be scent-bonded to, but there was no reason to point that out and freak Cas out. After all, if it was up to Dean, the omega would totally be stuck with him for a long time.

“Yeah, sounds like a plan,” Dean said, shrugging casually as to not make Cas aware of how excited he was to be (and stay) scent-bonded to the omega.

“Really?” Cas perked up as if he had actually thought Dean turning him down would have been an option.

“Sure. So, does that mean we can finally scent each other again? ’Cause I gotta say, my alpha has really missed scenting the crap out of his scent-bond partner.”

Damn, that sounded good. Scent-bond partner. That was really close to ‘mate.’

It _felt_ really close to mate, too, when he got to bury his nose in Cas’ neck and felt like he finally got his fix again after going cold turkey for the last few days.


	12. Chapter 12

“That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard,” Sam said.

Gabe’s visit had made Dean aware that he hadn’t seen his little brother in a while, so he had decided to drive over and come by for an impromptu visit of his own. Apparently, that’s what big brothers did.

He was currently making himself at home on Sam’s sofa, drinking a glass of_ orange juice_ of all things because Sam didn’t have any beer.

“It’s not crazy,” Dean protested. “It’s just… y’know.”

Sam raised his eyebrows at him. When he didn’t get any other explanation (it’s not like Dean _had_ any), he said, “So, let me get this straight. You’re sleeping with him, regularly scenting him, you two are scent-bonded—but you aren’t together?”

“Yep.” That pretty much summed it up.

“Have you claimed him yet?” Sam asked.

Dean rolled his eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous! We’re just scent-bond partners, it’s not like we’re courting or anything.”

“Yes, _I’m_ the one who’s being ridiculous. Sorry, but this is the weirdest non-relationship you’ve ever been in. I mean, you’re pining for him so bad you’re coming to me for advice…”

“Whoa, hey, hold up there!” Dean interjected. “First of all, I came here for a _visit_. ’Cause, you know, that’s what families _do_. And second, I’m not _pining_, I’m just…” He trailed off, trying to figure out what it was exactly that he was doing. “Okay, maybe I’m _lusting_ after him a little bit. It’s like he’s forbidden fruit. I was always great at going after what I can’t have.”

There, that was an explanation he could live with. And hopefully, Sam could, too.

“Why can’t you have him?” Sam asked.

“I don’t know.” Dean threw his hands up in the air. “He doesn’t like alphas. Or knots. Or… hell if I know. His scent-blocking brother interrupted just when I was getting to the bottom of things.”

He was still a bit bitter about that.

“Okay. So, why don’t you ask him again now?”

Typical Sammy. Always so logical.

“_He’s_ the one who should start that discussion again. I already asked once,” Dean gave his own very logical rebuttal.

And that’s what he held on to once he was back home. Of course, Cas didn’t bring it up again, so it seemed like Dean would just have to suck it up and lust in private.

That turned out to get more difficult by the day, especially when Dean woke up to his sleeping scent-bond partner suckling on his mating gland. Dean used to push omegas who got too handsy with his mating gland away. They would usually try to get a taste of it during sex or shortly after, during their post-orgasmic bliss, which was an instant turn-off for Dean.

When Cas was the one to nibble on it, though, his instinct was to bare his neck. A typical _omega_ instinct. Alphas shouldn’t submit by baring their necks. They only did that in one case: when they invited an omega to place a mating bite on them.

Dean quickly nudged Cas away a bit and turned his back to him. There was no way he’d wake him up and embarrass him by pointing out what he was inadvertently doing. At the same time, even though he liked it, Dean couldn’t let Cas continue getting intimate with his mating gland when the omega didn’t even know what he was doing.

Apart from hopelessly lusting after his scent-bond partner, having a fully developed scent bond with Cas also had its perks. For one, he didn’t have to stealthily scent-mark him anymore.

They had discussed what their scent-bond meant for their friendship, and the urge to scent-mark was something all scent-bonded pairs felt, so scent-marking each other had made it on their list of appropriate things to do to each other.

So had nibbling each other’s scent glands—which was probably why Cas had latched onto his mating gland in his sleep.

Not on their list—much to Dean’s regret—was seeing each other during their heats and ruts. Instead, the plan was to give each other an article of clothing they could scent when one of them was about to enter their cycle. After all, everyone knew that alphas and omegas who had developed a scent bond craved each other’s scents, especially when in heat or rut.

Also not on their list, and something Dean was thinking more and more about: kissing. Maybe Dean should have suggested it, but he had chickened out. He really didn’t want Cas to turn him down. Better to not ask at all than ask and be denied.

He had developed a system to cheat that point in a way, anyway. Since he was allowed to nibble on Cas’ scent gland according to their scent bond agreement, he could sneak in some feather-light kisses to the omega’s neck, barely there and then gone again, which served to placate his alpha.

* * *

Cas’ omega was going _nuts_ with all the attention Dean focused on his scent gland. It certainly did not help with his confusing dreams about the alpha.

Some of those dreams had the alpha doing very un-alpha like things like the blowjob in the dream that had started it all. Others started out with Cas and Dean lazily making out, but ended with Dean mounting and thus hurting him. Still others focused on some heavy petting.

Cas had woken up with slick between his ass cheeks a couple more times. Luckily, Dean never made a big deal out of it. In return, Cas ignored it when he smelled alpha arousal. It was just a natural biological reaction to being close to the man you were scent-bonded to.

What confused him even more than the increasingly frequent dreams was when one night as Dean climbed into bed next to him, the alpha said sleepily, “Night, babe,” and kissed the top of his head before turning off the bedside lamp.

The head kiss, he was already familiar with. That was apparently just something Dean did without thinking about it. The ‘babe’ was new, though. It hadn’t even sounded like Dean had meant it in a teasing or ironic way.

Giving each other nicknames was a way to show affection, Cas knew. So, to show Dean that he cared about him, too, Cas answered into the darkness, “Night, honeybee.”

He only got a soft snore as an answer.


	13. Chapter 13

Dean’s favorite part of the day was, naturally, when they climbed into bed together and made each other feel good by scenting and nibbling on each other’s scent glands.

Using his sneak-kiss technique, Dean was just really going to town on Cas’ scent gland, enjoying the way he could make Cas shiver if he hit just the right spot. It was an incredible feeling when Cas tilted his head to give Dean more room to work with, and Dean was quickly getting lost in Cas’ scent. He could never get enough of the scent of (his) content omega.

He alternated between flicking his tongue across Cas’ scent gland and laving it with gentle, yet sure strokes of his tongue. In order to get better access to Cas’ neck, he had snaked his hand around Cas’ waist to pull him close and was lying half on top of the omega, one of his legs wedged between Cas’. As an alpha, this was a favorite position for him because he could take control of their scenting position.

Dean playfully bit at Cas’ scent gland and then soothed it by licking across it once more.

“Dean!” Cas said, a desperate edge to his voice.

“Too much?” Dean asked as he reluctantly let go of Cas’ scent gland and pushed himself up a bit so that he wasn’t smothering the omega.

But luckily, Cas shook his head. He bit his lower lip and blinked up at Dean. “Not enough.”

“Okay.” That, he could work with. “I got an idea. You know, the senses of smell and taste are directly related. So, if scenting’s not enough…” He trailed off, unsure of how to bring it up. “My alpha has been dying to do this. Maybe that’s what your omega needs, too,” he finally settled on saying.

And then he just went for it. Too drunk on Cas’ scent to think about the implications, he ducked back down and kissed around Cas’ scent gland, slowly making his way along his neck to his jawline and then further up until he could brush his lips oh so softly against Cas’.

The contact sent instant sparks of electricity all through his body.

This. _This_ was what had been missing! What his alpha had craved.

“This okay?” he asked, his lips only a breath away from the omega’s.

Cas was looking up at him through hooded eyes. He seemed just as drunk on Dean’s scent as Dean was on his. Which was to be expected. They were scent-bond partners after all. Nothing strange going on here, just two scent-bond partners making the most of their scent bond.

“I need you to use your words,” Dean encouraged him, even though he was really close to placing another kiss right on Cas’ lips because apparently, they were as addictive as his scent.

“Yes. That. Good. I mean, good idea,” Cas babbled, and Dean couldn’t help but smile down at the adorable omega.

Then he leaned back down, using his weight to push Cas softly into the pillows, and kissed him again, longer this time. He caught Cas’ lower lip between his own and sucked it gently just because he could, and he wanted to.

Cas whimpered and chased after his lips when Dean broke the kiss once more.

“My alpha really wants to use tongue,” Dean said. “Can I…?”

Cas nodded enthusiastically and was already pulling Dean back down on top of him.

Damn, Dean would never have thought he’d get to make out with Cas.

He quickly licked his way inside Cas’ mouth, thrilling at the sensation of Cas’ tongue against his. As scent-bond partners, they had done lots of intimate things: scenting, sleeping wrapped in each other’s arms, nibbling each other’s scent glands…

But this? This was heaven. This was Dean getting to legit _make out _with _Cas_. If he was being honest with himself, he had wanted to do that ever since that first scenting session.

What every make out session needed was, of course, some stroking and holding, the alpha embracing the omega to show him that he was safe and cared for—so Dean did just that, letting his alpha instincts take over. Protecting the omega at all costs was definitely among the more base alpha instincts.

Having Cas safely in his arms did wonders to calm his alpha.

His one hand was still securely wrapped around Cas’ waist while the other was affectionately fondling his scent gland. And if it occasionally slipped a bit further back to his mating gland—well, then that was clearly an accident.

It was still an accident when he took it between his thumb and index finger and experimentally stroked it, making Cas shut his eyes tightly and moan.

Dean got so lost in the feeling of how _right_ this all was, like coming home, as if his alpha had been made to lie on top of this omega—that he didn’t even really register how much Frenching and fondling Cas turned his alpha on.

Not until Cas broke away from the kiss and blinked his eyes open to look up at him, wide-eyed.

“Dean?” he sounded breathless. Dean had kissed him breathless.

He had a really hard time looking at Cas’ eyes, since he was busy staring at his glistening, red lips. He certainly wasn’t the only one aroused here. The scent of slick was all-encompassing.

Why were they talking and not kissing?

“Yeah.”

“I need to use the bathroom.” And with those words Cas wiggled out from under him, climbed out of bed and then left the bedroom.

Dean’s pulse was still racing, confused hormones raging through his body. He wouldn’t have been surprised if mating hormones were responsible for the way he felt left behind and the way he wanted to go after Cas.

As he was sitting there in bed, confused as to what had just happened, he couldn’t decide if kissing Cas had been the best or worst plan he’d ever had.

* * *

Cas carefully closed the bathroom door and immediately turned on the faucet of the sink. Then he sat down on the toilet and buried his head in his hands.

Being kissed by Dean had turned him on and made him slick. This was no longer just Dream Dean making him wet. This was the real Dean, whose touch had felt _so_ _good_.

The way Dean had covered Cas’ body with his own should have made him feel boxed in and claustrophobic. Instead, it had made him feel cared for and—he could at least admit it to himself—it had been arousing. Lying trapped under an alpha’s strong body should make him panic, not get turned on.

At least the kissing had affected Dean, too. Cas had clearly smelled and felt his arousal.

And why had Dean kept touching his mating gland? He had coaxed it into secreting mating hormones, which had made Cas unable to think clearly.

Now that Dean’s scent wasn’t all around him, the facts still remained the same. He was attracted to the alpha (which was a first for him, so it was still a bit weird), and he liked being held and kissed by him. It wasn’t just a fantasy, something he only enjoyed in strange dreams, but it was something his omega craved and wanted more of.

“Cas?” Dean was knocking on the bathroom door. “Did I freak you out?”

Did he? Not really. Cas had freaked himself out.

Before Cas could answer out loud, Dean continued, hesitantly, “Do you want me to go?”

Again, Cas wasn’t quite sure how to answer. He definitely didn’t want Dean to go, that much he knew. But what was the alternative? Was he ready to continue where they had left off? Dean would have questions without a doubt…

“Okay,” he heard Dean sigh, and then there was movement away from the bathroom door.

“No,” Cas quickly called out, his heart in his throat. “Be right out!”

Then he splashed some water on his face and turned off the faucet.

Dean had been patient with him without asking too many questions for long enough. It was time to gather up his courage and have the conversation he’d been avoiding.


	14. Chapter 14

“Hey, you okay?” Dean asked as soon as Cas stepped out of the bathroom. “You smell distressed.”

He knew he shouldn’t have pushed, but his stupid alpha instincts had taken over and he had been incapable to resist those soft lips… and now Cas was clearly upset…

“Do you want to scent me?” Dean asked, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Usually, scenting Dean was what made Cas calm down. But since Dean was apparently the problem, he had no idea if that was what Cas needed.

The omega nodded, though, which was a relief.

Cas’ nose was cold against his neck, and Dean tried to remain still and just be there until Cas was feeling safe enough to let go of him.

After a while, Cas stopped scenting and took his hand, leading him back to the bedroom, where they sat down on the bed.

Cas didn’t look at him when he started talking, but his fingers were still intertwined with Dean’s, which Dean took as a good sign. Partway through his story, Cas had to stop talking to scent Dean before he could go on. Even though Dean supposed his scent had to have turned angry by then, Cas didn’t seem to mind, that’s how safe he felt with him.

Protective instincts had awakened within Dean, but even when he let out an involuntary growl directed at those alphas who had hurt Cas in unimaginable ways, Cas didn’t so much as flinch. It might be helpful that they were scent-bond partners. It was just natural that Cas wasn’t scared of his scent-bond partner.

After having talked about what he had gone through, Cas was very clearly exhausted, leaning heavily on Dean, his nose occasionally bumping against Dean’s scent gland.

All Dean could do was hold him close and show his omega that none of what he had just said bothered him. (Well, it bothered him a lot, but only because he was mad at the alphas who had done this to Cas.)

“I’m not going to do anything you’re not comfortable with, Cas,” Dean finally said, his voice soft, as he placed a kiss to the top of Cas’ head.

“I know,” Cas mumbled back, yawned, and climbed onto the bed the rest of the way to lie down.

Dean was still just sitting there, unsure of what to do now.

“I’m comfortable with you lying next to me, you know,” Cas said, and that settled that.

There was another moment when Dean didn’t know if he was allowed to spoon Cas, but the omega just snatched his arm and put it around his middle. Well then.

“Cas…” Dean began, unsure of what to say to make this better.

“I’m done talking about this for now,” the omega declared. “Go to sleep, honeybee.”

“Honey-what now?”

“Bee,” Cas repeated a bit louder. “It’s a pet name,” he then explained. And after another beat of silence, “I’m showing affection.”

Dean suppressed a grin. God, how he loved this geeky omega. He huffed out a laugh. “You’re showing _something_ alright…”

Turning around in his arms, Cas squinted at him. “I do not understand that reference,” he stated.

Dean rolled his eyes and booped Cas’ nose, which only made the omega squint harder. “I’m teasing,” Dean said. When that didn’t make the confused frown disappear from Cas’ face, he explained, “I’m showing affection, too.”

“Oh,” Cas said and turned back around to play little spoon once more, apparently satisfied with that answer. “You have a strange way of doing that.”

“Look who’s talking,” Dean mumbled while pulling Cas back against him.

There was a short pause, then Cas said, “You’re teasing again.”

“Yeah, well. That’s just how much… affection I have for you.”

“Okay.” Just like that, no other explanation needed. “Night, snugglebun.”

Snuggle-_what_? He was a big, bad alpha, thank you very much. But his very own snugglebun was lying enclosed in his arms and was, according to himself, trying to show affection, so Dean felt his heart swell anyway. He leaned over and placed a kiss to Cas’ neck.

“Sleep tight,” he said.

After everything Cas had confided in him, Dean’s alpha was very happy that he now had him back in his arms. His protective instincts sure were appeased. After all, he was there to make sure that this omega stayed safe and sound.

* * *

Dean guessed that they were kind of a thing now? He wasn’t really sure since they hadn’t put a label on it. If nothing else, they were still scent-bond partners. But with the added benefit of doing ‘whatever Cas was comfortable with.’

Which was mostly lots and lots of kissing. Their scenting sessions now regularly included soft kisses, deep kisses, French kisses, Eskimo kisses, long kisses, kisses to all kinds of places like kisses on the nose, on the neck, along the arm until Dean reached Cas’ elbow pit…

Dean’s favorite place to kiss was Cas’ hip when he sneakily pulled up the shirt a bit because Cas was ticklish and let out the most melodious giggle. He would squirm a little under Dean, but he’d also say, “Again!” when Dean was about to pull his shirt back down and leave his poor hip alone.

Once, Cas mentioned in a roundabout way that he was feeling bad that he wasn’t ready to give Dean more, but Dean waved him off and replied, “I’m comfortable with whatever you’re comfortable with.” When Cas didn’t look convinced, he added, “This—” while stroking along Cas’ arm and kissing the inside of his wrist. “—feels pretty amazing to me.”

‘Amazing’ didn’t begin to cover it—his alpha was friggen _elated_ that he finally got to do what he had been dreaming about for what felt like ages—but he got a shy smile for his attempt at explaining himself anyway.

Sometimes, when he was lying on top of Cas, surrounded by the omega’s delicious scent, and they were lazily making out, the tingling feeling of mating hormones spreading through his body was hard to ignore. For the most part, Dean managed to ignore it. He did occasionally let his thumb brush against Cas’ mating gland, however, wondering if the change in Cas’ scent meant that the omega’s mating gland was busy producing the right hormones as well.

Cas exhibited all the signals of an omega ripe for claiming. He was enthusiastically encouraging Dean to kiss every place on his body (well not _every_ place, but up to and including his mating gland), they were already scent-bonded, and lately, Cas had started baring his neck as a sign of both trust and submission.

Whenever he did that, Dean rewarded him by being extra careful with him, very softly nibbling on his bared neck and making sure the omega felt safe in his arms. Dean only had to do what his alpha instincts told him to do because seeing Cas bare his neck never failed to stimulate his protective instincts.

Of course, his alpha instincts also wanted him to do more than scent and cuddle and kiss. He wanted to show Cas how much affection he had for him in other ways. But he had sworn to himself that he would let Cas take the first step—if Cas should ever want to take it a step further that was.

So for now, he tried to enjoy the feelings Cas had awakened in him, and make the most of kissing every inch he could reach. And if he lingered on Cas’ mating gland—well, then that was just because Cas had invited him to with all the neck baring…


	15. Chapter 15

Dean tonguing and biting at his mating gland was exhilarating. The tingling feeling of the mating hormones started in his neck and went all the way down to his toes, making him all weak in the knees. It was addictive. Probably dangerous if he didn’t want to end up claimed by accident, but that was part of the thrill.

Of course, he trusted Dean and knew that the alpha wouldn’t break skin but sometimes, when they were lost in each other’s scents and the world around them had all but faded away, Cas kind of wished he would.

He encouraged Dean by tipping his head to the side, which never failed to get the alpha excited. And that was another thing—Cas loved the prickling feeling of anticipation that rushed through him whenever they made each other excited. When Dean’s hand underneath his shirt would find a nipple and tease it into aroused hardness, or when he would feel Dean’s desire through his pants, hard and strong, against his hip or lower belly.

Cas loved squirming around underneath Dean just to feel the hardness swell even more. As a response, he’d feel a funny flutter in his stomach.

It was kind of like an ache so low in his belly, and his whole body would become hyper aware of every touch. Dean was able to get his slick production going with just a sensual kiss or even by brushing a strand of hair out of his face.

At this point, all his omega instincts could do was make him part his legs so that Dean could settle between them.

That was where their make out sessions usually ended. Dean would kiss him one last time, a long and deep goodbye kiss that left Cas reeling, and then he’d get up and excuse himself to the bathroom to take a shower.

Cas was left with tingling limbs, a throbbing feeling in his belly, and an empty feeling in his slick-coated ass.

While he loved that confusing feeling of excitement, he still couldn’t help but yearn for more.

Sometimes, he thought about touching himself while Dean was in the bathroom, but that wasn’t very hospitable. Instead, he just waited and when it was his turn to shower, the tingling electricity coursing through his body had subsided.

Occasionally, Cas wondered why Dean never initiated one of those make out sessions. It was always him who had to start the kissing. Once he did, Dean was immediately on board, returning the kisses enthusiastically while his hand found its way under Cas’ shirt, but if Cas _didn’t_ start anything, all he would get was a chaste goodnight kiss and that was that.

⁂

They had come full circle. Dean was back to rubbing one out as often as possible so that his alpha wouldn’t get too frustrated. With all the kissing and touching, they regularly got each other excited just to stop before they could go too far, which was confusing as hell to his alpha, who just wanted to mount this omega already.

While Dean liked some teasing as foreplay, stopping before he could get off was getting harder and harder (pun intended).

So, maybe it wasn’t so bad that a friend of a friend needed some work done to fix up his new house—which was a few hours’ drive away, which in turn meant that Dean had to stay there for a couple weeks. It would give him and his alpha some time to cool down a bit.

Oh, who was he kidding? It wasn’t ‘not so bad’—it was _very_ bad. Being separated from his scent-bond partner would sure be difficult on the both of them. It was a good job, though, which would pay well.

“It’s not too late, I could still cancel,” Dean offered when they were scenting each other goodbye.

“Don’t be ridiculous. You said jobs have been a bit scarce lately,” Cas pointed out. “Plus, we will Skype every day, and we have each other’s clothes.”

Dean had probably packed more of Cas’ clothes than his own. He just hoped they would still carry Cas’ scent a couple weeks from now.

He had to admit that Cas was right—even though he already missed him when he thought about being hundreds of miles away from him.

⁂

The first day wasn’t too bad. After work, they Skyped and with one of Cas’ shirts next to him, which he sniffed from time to time, it almost felt as if they were lying next to each other.

Cas was actually _wearing_ Dean’s favorite plaid shirt. Since it was a bit too big for him, he looked absolutely adorable in it. (Okay, he might just look adorable in it because he was _wearing Dean’s clothes_, period.)

They actually fell asleep with their laptops still open.

The more days passed, the more he missed Cas’ touches, though. He was keeping busy during the day, but in the evenings, just talking via Skype didn’t make up for their usual scenting sessions. Cas seemed to have the same problem.

They had just fallen silent after telling each other about their days when Cas sighed. “Wish you were here,” he mumbled. He was wearing one of Dean’s shirts again and was using another one as a pillow.

“Yeah, me too.” If all went well, they might only have one more week to go until he could hold his omega in his arms again.

“I really miss your kisses,” Cas admitted quietly and promptly blushed.

What a coincidence—Dean really missed kissing him. “If I were with you right now, I’d kiss you right on your mating gland,” he said.

“I _knew_ you were doing that on purpose,” Cas replied as if he had just lifted a secret. After a beat of silence, he asked, “What else?”

God, Dean wanted to kiss Cas _all over_. “Uhm… your arm,” he decided because that was always a good place to start. “The inside of your left arm,” he specified.

Cas looked at the spot Dean had described, a forlorn expression on his face. Unable to see his omega suffer because he was separated from his scent-bond partner, Dean decided to do something about it. “Come on, do it.”

A crease appeared on Cas’ forehead. “Do what?”

“Kiss the inside of your arm,” Dean prompted.

Cas, stubborn omega that he was, rolled his eyes. “I am not going to kiss my own arm,” he said, unimpressed.

“It’s not you, it’s _me_ kissing your arm. Just… close our eyes,” Dean directed.

Cas kept looking at him for another moment, but in the end, Dean totally won the staring contest. Finally, Cas sighed his ‘I know you’re being ridiculous, but I’m humoring you anyway’ sigh and did as he was told.

Dean’s alpha was still pleased with the way his omega followed instructions, even though he was rather bratty about it. “Good. Now, bury your nose in my shirt.”

That, Cas did without hesitation, inhaling Dean’s scent deeply. The crease on his forehead smoothed out almost instantly.

“There you go,” Dean encouraged. “I’m right here. I’m scenting you.” And Dean did, using Cas’ shirt he had laid out for later when he was alone in his motel room. Taking a deep breath, he took in the scent of his ma—no, not ‘mate,’ scent-bond partner. Yes. The scent of his scent-bond partner.

“God, you smell so good,” he said, scenting the crap out of Cas’ shirt while watching the omega go nuts on Dean’s own shirt.

One of Cas’ hands instinctively reached up to his own scent gland and fondled it the way Dean always did while scenting him.

Dean could just imagine his scent turning a bit sweeter as it usually did when Dean focused his attention on his neck, making a pass at his mating gland and moving on to scratch him behind the ear.

“I’m slipping my hand under your shirt,” Dean said, imagining the feeling of Cas’ warm, naked skin under his fingers and how he would always let his hand roam over Cas’ hips and up his torso.

He waited until Cas had hesitantly put his own hand under his shirt before he rumbled his approval. There was a good omega.

“I’m pinching your nipple,” he continued, remembering the feeling when it turned into a hard little nub between his fingers.

“Dean—”

“I’m pinching your nipple,” Dean repeated more assertively.

Cas bit his lower lip and moaned when he did as he was told, which satisfied Dean’s alpha and made him long for Cas at the same time.

“Kiss me,” Cas begged and opened his mouth slightly as if he wanted to invite Dean in.

“I am,” Dean replied, his eyes drawn to Cas’ lower lip that was red and glistening from where he had bitten it moments before.

Dean wanted to taste those lips. More, he wanted to take that nipple Cas had played with between his lips and feel it harden against his tongue. He wanted to softly suckle it.

“I wanna feel your nipple between my lips,” he heard himself say his thoughts out loud.

Cas opened his eyes and looked right into Dean’s. He licked over his lips again. Then he said, “Okay,” and pushed his shirt up to expose his breasts so that Dean could see those pert nipples standing at attention already.

Dean couldn’t suppress a groan. This was farther than their make out sessions had ever gotten when they were in the same room. His heart was aching to be with Cas.

His dick was aching for a different reason.

“You can’t smell it, but I’m slicking,” Cas informed him.


	16. Chapter 16

“You’re… slicking?” Dean repeated. _Smooth_. He cleared his throat and tried again, “Do you… do you maybe want to do something about it?”

Cas seemed to consider this for a moment and then said, “I actually wanted to keep talking to you some more, but you’re right. Wet underwear _can_ get uncomfortable. I’ll call you back later.”

And then he hung up.

Okay then. Dean should have known by now that he had to be clearer about what he meant with Cas. Well, if he’d call back later, Dean better take care of his own arousal in the meantime.

The following days were even harder to be apart, probably because the clothes lost their Cas smell bit by bit. It was like Dean’s nose missed Cas’ scent gland and there was nothing Dean could do but pine for Cas and long for the day he could drive home.

⁂

It had been 16 days. 16 long days, which was 16 too many. But finally, Dean was on his way back.

He had called from the road and ever since then, Cas’ omega was so excited to get his alpha back that he kept rearranging the pillows on his bed, adding some more blankets to the mix. After all, Dean should feel comfortable and should want to stay here at least for the night.

Dean had told him that he missed him almost every day when they had been Skyping, but what if Dean had realized that he got by just fine without his scent-bond partner? This time, it was two weeks and two days. Maybe next time he wouldn’t see Dean for even longer.

Maybe, he should add just one more blanket to make sure Dean would sink into the blankets and never want to leave…

Just then Dean arrived. He had to have come straight here to be so early.

Cas barely managed to say, “Hello, Dean,” the alpha pulled him close and started scenting frantically, like he was starving for Cas’ scent.

Cas could relate. He maneuvered them around so he could close the door, all the while keeping his own face buried in Dean’s neck.

“God, I’ve missed you!” Dean sighed, sounding as drunk on Cas’ scent as Cas felt on Dean’s.

Somehow, they made their way to the bed and the way Dean eyed the fluffy blankets made Cas think that he appreciated the work Cas had put into making them a comfortable ‘welcome home’ reunion make-out place.

As soon as they had taken in the scents of each other and both their alpha and omega weren’t as scent-starved anymore, the nibbling began.

Now that Cas had found out that Dean ‘mistook’ his mating gland for his scent gland on purpose, Cas decided that he was allowed to play with Dean’s mating gland a bit too.

When he gave it the first tentative lick, Dean paused his own teasing for a second.

“This feels good, right?” Cas asked because he had no idea if it felt as good for an alpha as it did when Dean did it to _him_.

“Whu—? I mean, yeah.”

“Hm,” Cas said and gave the mating gland another lick, this time a bit more sure of himself. “That’s because of the mating hormones,” he told Dean.

“Yeah, that’s—” Dean began and then broke off with a groan when Cas tried some nibbling. “Cas—God, I…”

Cas smiled. He liked his alpha all incoherent because of _him_, because of something he did. This felt so nice that he didn’t freak out when he felt Dean’s erection. His omega even wanted to twist his hips a bit, just to see Dean’s eyes roll back in his head the way they did when their teasing each other got to be too much.

Dean’s hands had found their way to Cas’ hips in the meantime, touching him over his shirt.

Thinking back to how Dean had been interested in seeing Cas’ nipples, Cas suggested, “We could take off our shirts. I’m sure skin-on-skin contact would help settle your alpha and my omega.” After all, they were still clearly desperate for each other even now that they were in each other’s arms.

“Yes, that’s—yeah,” Dean agreed and then everything felt so much better when they had gotten rid of their shirts and Cas could snuggle against Dean’s warm skin. Dean’s hands were now on Cas’ naked hips, just resting there while Dean kissed Cas softly, slipping him some tongue when Cas invited him to by opening his mouth before going back to his neck.

These mating hormones were starting to drive Cas crazy, but all the neck baring in the world didn’t get Dean to bite. Not that Cas was trying to get him to bite his _mating gland_ necessarily, but maybe next to it just to put _some_ sign on Cas that told them they belonged to each other.

“Dean, I… I know you probably don’t want to… But my omega missed you _so much_ and… Can you bite just a little bit? Just a small claim?”

He felt embarrassed to even ask. Dean had been careful not to bite. He clearly didn’t want—

“Are you kidding me?! _Of course_ I want to claim you! I didn’t think I was _allowed_!”

“Well. You’re allowed.”

“Okay.” Dean looked at Cas’ neck. Then he licked his lips. Then he looked back at Cas. “Okay,” he repeated. “How does this work? Do I just… go for it?”

Cas raised an eyebrow at Dean. Had the alpha really just asked him what he had to do to claim Cas? It was instinctual. Or at least it was supposed to be.

“It’s not like I’ve every claimed an omega before,” Dean defended himself. “I mean, how hard a bite are we talking here?”

“Dean? Alphas have claimed omegas since before civilization started. I think you’re fine if you just… go with your gut.”

Once more, Cas bared his neck and this time when Dean took him up on the offer and started nibbling, there was intent behind it that made Cas’ omega weak in the knees.

When his neck was ready and prepped for a claiming bite, Dean bit him quick and almost tender and then he instantly started licking to soothe the skin even though it didn’t even hurt.

“There,” Dean said, his tone matching his scent that had turned proud alpha. He smiled at Cas. “Look who’s my omega now,” he teased as he pulled Cas on top of him.

Cas smiled back because finally, his omega had gotten what he had longed for.

‘Dean’s omega’—that sounded nice.

⁂

Dean couldn’t believe that Cas had let him put a _claiming bite_ on him! He assumed that most alphas claimed their omegas in the middle of sex, but this had actually been nice. A deliberate claiming while holding each other lovingly rather than biology dictating it.

They continued cuddling and kissing and fondling each other, the feeling of skin on skin sensual and intimate, reveling in each other and in the fact that after such a long time apart, they now had all the time in the world to keep scenting and holding each other close.

At some point, Cas—who was probably exhausted because of all the hormones rushing through his body because he was now a claimed omega—fell asleep right there on top of Dean, a reassuring weight against his chest.

Dean kissed his claiming bite one more time and whispered softly, “Love you” against his skin.


	17. Chapter 17

When Cas woke up, he felt… _loved_, which he had felt in Dean’s presence before, but this was different. He was right where he belonged... in his alpha's arms.

Dean was awake already and kept brushing his thumb over Cas’ mating gland.

Oh.

That’s where he had bitten him, put his claim on him.

“Morning sleepyhead,” Dean smiled at him and God, Cas had missed that smile when Dean had been away and all his smiles via Skype had been a bit bittersweet.

He burrowed close to take the first whiff of the morning from Dean’s scent gland, and as soon as his nose latched on, he noticed that his scent was especially strong today—and was that a new component he smelled?

“Hey there,” Dean chuckled. “I’m not going anywhere. No reason to rush the scenting.” He played with the hair on the back of Cas’ head, making Cas slow down instinctively.

“Your scent is different,” Cas explained and went right back to taking it in.

“Different?” Dean repeated, but Cas was busy trying to figure out why Dean was smelling so delicious today.

The alpha wasn’t aroused—Cas knew that scent well by now. And then he realized what was going on. The claiming!

It wasn’t just him who had been claimed and whose scent would reflect that. Dean was the one who had claimed him and thus made his intentions clear. Their bond had been intensified yet again from a scent bond to… a promise for more.

A claiming meant that the alpha and omega in question were off the market for the courting period after which they could decide if they were willing to go further or not.

This was the scent of an alpha who was—at least until the claiming bite would fade—his. To any other omega, he would smell like ‘off the market.’

Dean cleared his throat, making Cas aware of the fact that he had stopped scenting, but had his nose still pressed against his scent gland.

“I’m proud of you,” Dean said out of nowhere and Cas scooted away a couple of inches so that he could frown at him. “For yesterday,” Dean explained. “When you just… asked for what your omega needed.”

Cas felt a rush of exhilaration at the approval from his alpha.

“So,” Dean continued, “I think I should be honest here about my alpha’s needs too. Now that you’re wearing my claiming bite and all. So… thing is… my alpha would really like to spoil you a bit. You know, show you what a great mate he’d make for your omega? If you could just indulge him…?”

“Uhm…” Cas said. Dean’s alpha was getting ready to _court_ his omega?

“Or not, that’s cool too,” Dean said when Cas didn’t say anything else, rendered speechless at the idea that Dean’s alpha would _want_ to do that.

“Indulge him how?” Cas asked.

“Well, for now, I think it’d be enough if you just stayed in our nest while I go make us breakfast, and then we can have breakfast in bed together.”

Cas felt his face heat up at the comment about their ‘nest.’ Yes, he might have gone a bit far yesterday when preparing the bed for Dean’s return. It really did seem more like a nest.

“So… what do you say?” Dean asked, uncharacteristically shy as if he wasn’t sure what the answer would be.

“Breakfast in our nest sounds lovely,” Cas quickly reassured him, and just like that, the bright smile was back on Dean’s face.

⁂

Over the next few days, Dean was true to his word and did everything to spoil Cas from surprising him with a lunch basket at the bookstore to actually building him a new bookshelf for his apartment because Cas had complained about the old one, which had been… well old and about to collapse any day.

Then there was the time Dean offered to give him a massage. “Unless you’re not feeling comfortable with me touching you that way,” he quickly added.

Cas was feeling more than comfortable being touched that way by Dean, his hands kneading the back of his neck, working his way to his shoulders, firm yet gentle touches that made Cas all pliant and drowsy.

Letting Dean’s alpha do what his instincts were telling him to do was great. Cas wasn’t sure he was worth all of this trouble, but Dean kept reassuring him that he _wanted_ to do this and as long as Cas showed him that his omega appreciated him for it, both Dean _and_ his alpha would be happy.

“Look, of course I want to do nice things for my omega,” he explained when he gave Cas that fluffy cushion designed for nesting purposed that had a huge cartoon bee on it.

Cas dropped the cushion, then quickly bent down to pick it up and almost dropped it again.

“_Your_ omega?” he repeated, trying to go for nonchalant. Dean had said that before, but it had been in a teasing way, just referring to the fact that he had just bitten Cas. This time, there was no teasing. This time, it sounded like he _meant_ it.

“Well… yeah,” Dean said, a slight frown on his face. “I’ve claimed you. Don’t you think of me as your alpha?”

“Yes, I… yes!”

Of course, the claiming bite should have made that clear, but Cas had been the one to ask for it. Hearing it confirmed that it meant to Dean the same it did to Cas was a whole other thing.

“Well then, as your alpha, I want you to feel comfortable in our nest.” Dean motioned towards the cushion Cas hadn’t realized he was hugging tight.

Cas smiled at Dean, all giddy that they had finally admitted that they belonged together.

“In that case, both my omega and I want to thank you for the thoughtful gift,” he said.

He couldn’t believe that he had found the most patient alpha in the world!

Of course, with all the wooing and the claiming, his omega got ready to be mated. Unfortunately, their scent-bond partner agreement said that they wouldn’t spend their heats and ruts together.

But they weren’t just scent-bond partners anymore. Did that mean that he could ask Dean to stay with him during his approaching heat? And was he ready for that? He wasn’t scared of Dean’s alpha even a little bit and he trusted Dean with his life.

“My alpha is going to hate this,” Dean said when Cas told him what was about to happen. “Not being able to help his omega in heat.”

“Yes, my omega too,” Cas agreed. “Do you think… we could just… scent for a bit? In the nest? Maybe for the first day when it’s not that bad?” he suggested. “Or would your alpha want to… you know.” He tried doing a sign for what he meant so that he wouldn’t have to say it out loud, but when Dean just raised his eyebrows, he continued, “Breed me and stuff.”

“Oh. Well, I’m sure my alpha would want that, but I can hold him back. It’s more important to him that I’m there for you, make sure you’re taken care of.”

So, they agreed that Dean would stay with Cas at least for a while, and they’d see how their alpha and omega would handle that.

Just to be on the safe side, Dean would bring a bunch of his clothes, though, in case things got too frisky and he’d have to leave.


	18. Chapter 18

When Cas felt the beginnings of his heat low in his belly and texted Dean to come over, he felt himself get a bit nervous.

He didn’t regret asking the alpha to spend the first day of his heat with him because he really couldn’t imagine being separated from Dean for the complete duration of his heat. Still… usually when an alpha and an omega agreed to meet up for an omega’s heat, there were certain… expectations.

But they had talked about it and agreed that scenting, kissing and touching was okay—basically, they could do whatever they were both comfortable with.

Cas had let his omega prepare the nest because of course, nesting instincts had taken over and had been hard to suppress.

And now that he was in heat, his omega was yearning for one specific alpha—for _his_ alpha. Luckily, since Dean was lying right next to him in their nest, all Cas had to do was nestle against him, latch onto his scent gland and wait for Dean to put his arm around him and pull him close for the yearning to abate. After all, they were well versed in calming down each other’s alpha and omega by now.

Making out with Dean while he was in heat was exhilarating. Never before had he even considered letting an alpha stay in his bed when his heat had already hit. But every kiss from Dean—to his scent gland, on his mouth, on his _mating_ gland—sent a tingling jolt of electricity to every nerve ending in his body. Of course, being kissed by Dean _always_ sent a thrill through his body, but somehow, this was even more intense than usual.

Having Dean’s hands on him, stroking reassuringly across his back, helped keep him grounded. The fact that Dean smelled like ‘alpha who had claimed him’ made him want to crawl into him or at least get as close as possible.

Dean did all those things to him he had learned he liked: rubbing his belly, tickling his hipbone with the tips of his fingers, scratching under his chin, softly licking across his claiming mark…

All of this made his omega feel well taken care of, but still… it wasn’t quite enough.

“I want to scent you,” Cas stated.

Dean shot him a look that was probably meant to convey something along the lines of, _Since when do you need to ask?_ Out loud, he simply said, “Scent away.”

“I want to scent you _all over_,” Cas clarified, a bit frustrated that his alpha was so slow on the uptake today.

Why was Dean wearing a shirt in their nest anyway? That didn’t make a lot of sense, so Cas helped him get rid of it.

There. That was much better. Scenting Dean’s naked torso was clearly what his omega had wanted. After all, this was the alpha who had a claim on him, which made Cas’ stomach tingle with another jolt of excitement.

Only, Dean was holding himself rather still, so Cas stopped scenting long enough to ask, “Do you want to scent me there too?”

⁂

Dean didn’t dare move when Cas began writhing around against him, scenting down to his belly button and back up to his pecs.

This was an omega—no, _his_ omega—in heat who just took his time scenting every inch of him. Well, every inch above the waistline in any case. Of course, with all of those stimuli, he was hard—had been hard ever since Cas’ heat scent had hit, really—but while his alpha wanted to start making pups with this omega, Dean found that this kind of intimacy was actually more important.

So, when Cas offered to let Dean return the favor, he was instantly all for that plan. Cas’ shirt joined Dean’s on the floor and then there was no annoying fabric between them anymore. Getting to hug Cas half-naked, skin-on-skin contact and all, felt amazing. As did scenting his way to Cas’ nipples and then letting his tongue dart out for a quick taste.

So much naked skin combined with the scent of Cas and heat and slick all around made it harder for him to keep his alpha from just humping the sheets, so Dean reluctantly let go to say, “I think it might be time for me to…”

He didn’t get to finish that thought because Cas held on to him and interrupted, “Please stay. This feels nice, doesn’t it?” He underlined that by tracing along the skin where he had just scented.

“A bit too nice,” Dean murmured and when Cas tilted his head at him, he reassured him, “I didn’t mean _go_. I just… need to use the bathroom.”

Cas stared at him all intensely and his nose twitched as he scented the air, undoubtedly picking up on how aroused Dean was. As if to make sure, his eyes flitted down to Dean’s tented pants. Then his mouth formed and ‘oh’ and his eyes widened. “You want to bring yourself to orgasm.”

“Uhm…” Since when did Cas pick up on these things? Well, no need to lie about it now. “Yeah. So… Be right back.”

He tried to get up, but Cas was still holding on to him. The omega bit his lip and then colored slightly as he mumbled, “You could do that here.”

“I… what?”

“I don’t mind. I mean… it’s just normal alpha urges, right? And I kind of like the way you smell when you’re… close-to-orgasm aroused.”

Well, that explained why Cas kept edging him and why up till now, they had only ever stopped their make-out sessions when Dean was just about to come in his pants.

“Uhm… you sure?” he asked, because touching himself with Cas right there might be weird. Hot as hell, sure, but still...

Cas nodded, cheeks still pink, and then just went right back to scenting him.

Okay then. Dean pushed down his pants along with his underwear and took himself in hand.

When he didn’t start moving immediately, Cas stopped scenting long enough to look down, which made Dean feel a bit self-conscious, but it really was starting to get difficult to think clearly with his omega in heat right next to him. So, he started jerking himself slowly with a firm stroke down and back up the shaft.

He was rewarded not only by his cock twitching in his hand, but also by the scent of a fresh gush of omega slick. Damn, did his dick want to slide through that slick! But he wasn’t supposed to think about mounting Cas and sinking into his wet heat, so he tried to focus on what he was doing. He spit into his hand and then wrapped it around his dick again, jerking himself a bit faster.

Cas was watching what he was doing intently, head titled slightly as if he was fascinated by it. If not for the overpowering scent of slick, Dean would think he was watching more out of scientific curiosity than actual arousal on his part. Luckily, he _could_ smell Cas’ excitement—but that also meant that he had to tighten the reins on his alpha urges. After all, his alpha didn’t just want to fuck his own fist.

Since Cas smelled so delicious and he was actually right there next to him, Dean was close to orgasm in no time. Maybe one or two more strokes…

Suddenly, Cas’ hand shot out and stopped his. Oh no! No edging this time! He needed to _come_ goddammit or else his alpha would go _insane_.

“Cas!” He had meant to growl it as a warning, but it came out as more of a whine.

“I want to scent,” Cas said again, a hungry look in his eyes, and then he shimmied down a bit and just went to town on Dean’s dick, scenting along the side and up the shaft to the tip, pausing there to sniff like it was the best scent ever.

Dean slammed his eyes shut and groaned. It was all he could do to hold still. One big whiff at his balls had him clutch at the bedspread, anything he could reach to just hold on to.

His stomach muscles tensed in anticipation of his impending orgasm, but Cas didn’t seem to care. He was back at scenting the tip of his dick, and then he flicked his tongue over the swollen head experimentally.

A few careful and tentative licks followed, and Dean tried to keep it in, he really did, but… “Cas!” he moaned again as a warning.

“Just a little taste,” the omega said and went right back to his infuriating little licks that were too much and not enough at the same time.

“If you keep this up, you’re going to get a _big_ taste,” Dean ground out.

Cas didn’t respond to that and just suckled the tip of his cock into his mouth.

That was it.

His balls drew up tight and sparks of pleasure coursed through his body.

He had just enough presence of mind to pull his dick out of Cas’ mouth but he didn’t have time to angle it away before he was coming all over Cas’ face, marking his omega with his scent in the most primitive way possible. 


	19. Chapter 19

Cas’ omega was thrilled at the way his alpha marked him. _He_ had helped bring Dean to orgasm, which was an exciting thought. Plus, he found that he quite enjoyed being scent-marked that way. They should do this more often. He wouldn’t have even minded a ‘big taste,’ as Dean had called it, and he was a bit disappointed that he hadn’t gotten it.

Since he couldn’t get enough of it, he licked over the tip of Dean’s spent dick to get at least some of the taste.

Dean’s cock twitched at that and the alpha let out a broken moan before he gently pushed Cas off his dick, probably because he was too sensitive at that point.

So, Cas let go for now and instead scooted back up, but he was already looking forward to scenting the alpha down there some more once he was ready for it.

Something strange was going on with his ass, which kept slicking like crazy, even more so than usual during his heat, and some omega instinct made him scoop up Dean’s ejaculate from his face as best he could, shimmy out of his own pants and try to get some of it into his hole.

“What are you…” Dean started and broke off with another sexy moan when he realized what Cas was doing.

“It’s helping my heat,” was the only explanation Cas had to give—which was kind of a carte blanche for him from here on out.

And it _was_ helping, but for some reason it was also making his belly feel emptier still.

Snuggling back against each other helped some more and when Dean started licking the rest of his come off Cas’ face, his omega couldn’t help humping the sheets, desperate for… something. He continued humping the sheets (or more like Dean’s thigh at one point) with his nose buried in the alpha’s neck until he came and could return the favor. Well, he didn’t come on Dean’s _face_, but some of it ended up on Dean’s torso, so he got some primal scent marking in too.

Now that they had both found sexual relief, they were in need of some serious cuddle time. Lying together in their nest, limbs intertwined, fingers ghosting over naked skin was just what he needed to settle his omega.

“I’m sorry,” Cas mumbled after a while of just stroking and scenting each other.

Dean’s scent turned confused. “What for?”

“I imagine this must be strange for an alpha. To spend an omega’s heat with him like this.” Alphas wanted to mount omegas, brutally ram their cocks deep into their assholes with abandon.

Instead, here they were, snuggling together in their nest, and when Dean had been aroused to the point where he had no doubt wanted to plunge his cock into Cas’ hole, he’d had to masturbate instead.

“Cas…” Dean leaned back a bit so that he could look straight into Cas’ eyes. Then he said, “It’s the best ever. Seriously, don’t think for a second I’m not having the time of my life here.”

He sounded like he really meant it, and so Cas just enjoyed being in heat for once. They made out, let their hands roam over each other’s naked bodies, and all in all engaged in so much foreplay that Cas was starting to worry the nest would be soaked with his slick by the end of it.

Dean’s dick had long since gotten ready for round two as well, and Cas didn’t know what he’d like to do more: keep petting each other, get another taste of Dean’s delicious cock, or something else entirely.

When his asshole was so desperate for Dean’s dick that he didn’t think he’d be able to bear it any longer, he climbed on top of the alpha, and they started gently rocking together. First, their dicks were rubbing against each other, which made the tingling in Cas’ belly and balls build up. The scent of Dean’s arousal was once again so addictive that Cas’ own excitement was hard to keep in check.

While Cas was undulating against his alpha, the position changed slightly and then when Cas moved forwards and back, Dean’s dick slid against his dripping wet hole, which made it tingle in anticipation. Anticipation for what, Cas couldn’t quite figure out. He just knew that Dean’s dick sliding between his slick-coated cheeks was the best feeling in the world.

His whole body was on fire and still, inexplicably, it was craving for more. His movements turned more desperate in an attempt to give his omega what he truly wanted, whatever that was.

The next time Dean’s dick slid between his cheeks and nudged his asshole, the cockhead just slipped right in.

Cas stilled. His heat was soaring, demanding his ass not stay empty any longer. This would be the time he’d have to use a fake knot to satisfy his omega’s needs if he were alone.

Dean had stopped moving too and Cas could just tell he was about to retreat. That wasn’t what he wanted at all.

So, he whispered, “Don’t hurt me,” and began moving again, pushing the rest of the way down and thus taking the entire length of Dean’s cock into his body.

Dean was looking at him with wide eyes, his hips thrusting up involuntarily once, twice before he got himself under control and stopped moving, holding on to Cas’ hips to keep him still.

“God, Cas,” he groaned, his voice husky and just as aroused and desperate as Cas was himself.

Cas experimentally wiggled around on Dean’s cock. The need to be filled was still there, even though he now had an alpha’s cock in his ass—for the first time in his life because he wanted it there.

Trying to have that craving sated, he started riding Dean, angling this way and that until he found what he was looking for and couldn’t hold the sounds of pleasure in anymore.

Dean, apparently realizing what was going on, thrust up into him, into that very spot that made Cas bite his lips in a futile attempt to keep some of the more animalistic sounds in.

Submissive urges overcame him all of a sudden. Baring his neck hardly seemed like enough, but it was a start. He slowed down so that he could present his neck to Dean who immediately mouthed along the claiming bite and played with it.

There seemed to be a direct link between Cas’ mating gland and his ass because the tickling sensation shot right through his body and made his hole convulse around Dean’s cock, eliciting another moan from the alpha. The tingling in his belly intensified and moved deep down into his ass and between his thighs to his dick. His heat demanded for the alpha whose cock was thrusting into him to ejaculate inside of him.

“Fuck me!” Cas begged and even though Dean was already doing that, he seemed to understand as he rolled them around so that he was on top and could get a few good thrusts in that made Cas think he was going to explode from pleasure.

Dean ducked down to kiss Cas just as his knot caught and that was it. Cas came all over himself, his asshole fluttering uncontrollably around Dean’s cock, which began spurting his thick jism into him almost immediately.

Dean’s warm seed splashing deep inside him was exactly what his omega had longed for.

The alpha’s cock jerked inside of him, filling Cas up with a few more spurts, and he groaned as the enjoyable spasms continued for long moments.

Dean’s knot inside his ass felt so much better than any of the fake knots ever had, and for the first time, Cas could understand why some omegas complained about fake knots. They really couldn’t hold a candle to an alpha’s knot.

Surprised, Cas realized that it didn’t even hurt one bit. Quite the opposite—feeling Dean’s pulsating dick inside of him made his own balls draw up once more and he ejaculated again too.

With Dean blanketing him, having claimed every part of him, Cas felt safe and sated, his bout of heat well and truly taken care of in more ways than one.

Too exhausted for words, he licked Dean’s neck to tell him what an amazing job he had done. Dean licked him right back.

A post-coital lick to the mating gland. One might even interpret that as the ultimate sign of affection.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Decreasing numbers of comments tell me that it’s time to bring this fic to an end, even though it’s going to be hard to let this one go. I’ll see if I can finish it with one more chapter.
> 
> Since I’m a numbers person, I looked up some numbers and found out that 171 different people have commented on this fic so far, which surprised me, even though 97 of them only commented once.
> 
> But I also have 10 commenters who commented 10 times or more. 💕 A huge thanks to all those commenters who have kept this story going! ❤️


	20. Chapter 20

Cas licked his neck, and Dean’s alpha immediately calmed down. He licked him back to show him how much he meant to him, but now that his dick had finally gotten what it had so desperately needed, rational thoughts were slowly returning.

He had just fucked sweet, innocent Cas. While the omega had been in heat. Talk about taking advantage!

Urges to take care of his omega had overcome him, and then his dick had just… found its way into that deliciously tight hole.

The only problem was: the agreement had been to ‘scent for a bit.’ And Dean had talked a big game, reassuring Cas that he’d be able to hold his alpha back—and then he’d gone ahead and fucked him in the ass the first chance he got.

That was decidedly more than ‘scenting for a bit.’ That wasn’t even in the same ballpark as ‘scenting’ anymore.

He was definitely the worst scent-bond partner / alpha suitor / boyfriend (?) ever.

And—oh! They hadn’t even used a condom! They hadn’t planned on this going any further, and then things had just… happened naturally. At that point, Dean had been too busy trying to let Cas set the pace, trying to keep from coming prematurely, and all in all, he’d been too aroused to even think of the fact that he was about to fuck an omega in heat without a rubber.

“Dean?” Cas asked, nuzzled against him. “What’s happening with your scent?”

“Uh…” Dean said. Of course his scent would betray his silent freak-out. “Condoms!” he blurted out. Then he cleared his throat and tried again, “We didn’t use any protection.”

Another tentative lick to his neck had the same calming effect as before. “I take pills to regulate my heats. They also function as birth control,” Cas explained.

Oh.

He should have known that Cas wouldn’t be as careless as he himself had been.

“Good. ’Cause… you know.”

‘You know’ was code for ‘I have my seed locked up in your ass right now,’ but he was sure Cas caught the drift.

They just silently held on to each other for a while, back to snuggling for comfort.

Finally, Dean’s knot went down and once he slipped free, he still continued to stroke Cas lovingly because all of his instincts told him to love the crap out of this omega. Of course, by now he’d gotten used to those instincts, having had them for a while.

When Cas just purred contently, Dean realized that he might have to be the one to bring up the more sensitive subject.

“So… That was a bit more than just scenting, huh?”

That was a great way of phrasing it, keeping it casual. He was Captain Casual alright.

Of course, ‘casual’ might not be the perfect approach with Cas. “We had intercourse,” he deadpanned. “So I would have to agree.”

“Intercourse. Right,” Dean repeated, trying to find a way of saying what he actually wanted to address. “Uhm… before. You said you didn’t really feel ready for… ‘intercourse.’”

“Oh, that was when I thought it would hurt.” Cas, as opposed to Dean, actually did sound casual. So they’d fucked? No big deal. “What you did felt amazing. As long as you don’t do the thing that hurts, I feel very comfortable about your penis in my ass.”

Okay, wow. That was… Dean swallowed. It had been pretty obvious that Cas had been into it, the way the omega had moaned while trying to find a rhythm riding his dick, but it was still a huge relief to hear that the omega didn’t regret a thing.

Cas just went right on, “You will have to teach me how to…” he trailed off and tried again, a bit shyly, “I want to make you feel as good as you made me feel.”

Dean couldn’t keep the smile off his face. That was such a sweet thought, but… “Cas—you’re already making me feel so good, I doubt it would ever be possible to top that.” He took a deep breath. Here went nothing. “As a matter of fact, I feel really… matey with you.”

“Matey?” Cas interrupted him just as Dean had gotten up the courage to actually talk about feelings and stuff.

“It’s a word!” Dean defended himself. “It means you feel like the omega to my alpha. You feel like mate. Like I want this not just to be about what my alpha needs or what your omega needs, but about _us_. ’Cause I’m pretty sure I could make you happy.” Now that he was on a roll, he barreled right on, “I think we’ve already developed the bond, we just have to acknowledge what it means. I mean, am I totally off base here?”

“Well, _I’ve_ been feeling it for a while now. I was just not sure if _you_ had,” Cas admitted.

Really? How on earth could he have not been sure about Dean’s love? He had been so obvious! “What’s an alpha got to do around here? I’ve been courting you, claiming you…”

“After _I _asked you to,” Cas interrupted.

“Well, to be fair, I asked for the courting.”

“After I asked for the claiming,” Cas, stubborn omega that he was, countered. “I think the real question here is: what has an _omega_ got to do? I’m always the one who initiates being intimate with you.”

“Only because I didn’t want to pressure you into doing anything you weren’t ready for! That’s called being a considerate boyfriend!”

Oops. There went that word. Right out of his mouth and into Cas’ ears.

“Or, you know, a considerate…” Dean started, trying to think of a more fitting word, but once again, he was interrupted by Cas.

“No, you don’t get to take it back! That’s… that’s what I want.”

Yes! Score!

Dean leaned over to kiss his _boyfriend_ right on his mouth, not because his alpha urges made him, but simply because _he_ wanted to and he _could_ and _Cas_ wanted him to…

They’d shared soft kisses and dirty kisses and everything in between. But somehow, this one was special. This one was saying ‘I need you’ and ‘I love you’ and ‘you mean the world to me.’ And while they had had kisses that said all of that before too, this time, the knowledge that the other one felt the same way made it all the sweeter.

His eyes were drawn to the claiming bite and he licked his lips and said, “I’m gonna renew my claim on you now.”

“Dean,” Cas said, keeping his neck out of reach and ignoring Dean’s pout. “I’m in heat,” the omega reminded him. “You bite me, you mate me.”

“Oh.” He had forgotten for a second there. Cas’ neck looked so ready for another bite, he had simply wanted to give it a little nibble. “Not if I bite _next to_ your mating gland,” he then suggested.

That convinced Cas and he scooted closer again to bare his neck for Dean.

Finding the perfect spot to place a claiming bite was half the fun, especially since alternating between licking and blowing on his neck was making Cas squirm around in the cutest way. Giving Cas goosebumps of pleasure was quickly becoming his new favorite thing.

His moan of “Dean!” had undoubtedly been intended as a warning to get to it, but instead Cas just sounded breathless and desperate.

Dean smirked. Looked like he was getting his omega ready for another bout of heat.

They might be playing with fire here a little bit because one inch to the left, and Dean’s teeth might latch onto Cas’ mating gland. With mating on both their minds, they could easily get carried away. Instead, Dean was careful to find a safe spot and finally began nibbling and biting, sending more waves of pleasure through them both.

This omega was about to get claimed—again.

And then he was about to get loved—_so much_—for the rest of his life, just the way he deserved.

**Author's Note:**

> I can't believe it's done. One smiling eye and one crying eye and all that. A huge thanks to everyone who commented. Love you guys and I definitely couldn't have done it without you! 💖 And of course, I'd love to hear from you one more time if you enjoyed this last chapter.
> 
> There will most likely be more in this universe. I'm just not sure yet if it'll be in form of a sequel (I'm open to ideas on what to focus on) or just a oneshot follow-up set in the same universe or maybe even timestamps (for example when they get mated). So, what are some other aspects you'd like to see in this universe?
> 
> In any case, stay tuned. 😊 In the meantime, the next WIP I'll finish will be ["The Alpha Next Door"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22087501) so maybe you want to check that out if you haven't yet.
> 
> And if you want to support me another way, reblogging the link on tumblr would be awesome. **[Here's the link to the tumblr post](https://destielshipper4cas.tumblr.com/post/622648821727559680/scent-like-home-finished-rating-explicit-tags)**.


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